7:12PM
Guardiola is in the building
Credit: Getty Images/Isaac Parkin
7:11PM
The Red Star team and subs
Red Star Belgrade : Glazer, Mijailovic, Djiga, Dragovic, Rodic, Hwang, Stamenic, Bukari, Ivanic, Mitrovic, Ndiaye
Subs : Degenek, Spajic, Kanga, Katai, Olayinka, Krasso, Milunovic, Kangwa, Lucic, Kabic, Popovic, Vasiljevic
6:58PM
Man City starting XI: Nunes, Gomez and Alvarez start
Matheus Nunes is handed his first Manchester City start.
Jeremy Doku, Manuel Akanji and Josko Gvardiol are the players to make way from the weekend win at West Ham.
Subs : Ortega Moreno, Carson, Phillips, Doku, Gvardiol, Akanji, Bobb, Lewis.
6:55PM
Guardiola on the challenge of trying to retain the Champions League
We’re happy. We took a picture of the team with the four trophies there and to see the ChampionsLeague in front of you makes you feel so happy. We cannot deny it. But it’s done.
If I wanted to live for the memories, I would not be here. I would be at home or on some beach. But once we are here, we have to do it.
Credit: Getty Images/Icon Sport
This is a challenge, go for it, try to do it. Okay, we have it, it belongs to us but the competition gives us a new challenge, go for it, at least try it and I don’t have any doubts we are going to try.
That means just Madrid, or maybe the Arrigo Sacchi period with Milan, did it in a row. I was incredibly proud to be manager of the Barcelona team that won two titles in four years but we didn’t win it in a row.
It’s so difficult but just try it. Be ourselves and if we’re able, okay. If we’re not able to do it, like in the previous six seasons together, qualify for next season and try it again.
6:46PM
Kyle Walker on the hunger in the City dressing room
The hunger is still definitely in the changing room and the manager still wants to win more,” said Walker.
You can see what he is like on the field and in training. He doesn’t settle for second and we should follow in his footsteps because he has managed some great teams that have won fantastic things.
What we have done is in the past now. You draw a line and the manager did a diagram for the first game of the season and we start at the bottom of the mountain again.
We’re climbing the mountain. Our flag will always be at the top of the mountain because we have won the Champions League now, we’ve won the Premier League. But to go again and again, that is what separates the good teams from the great teams.
6:40PM
The challenge laid down by Pep Guardiola
By Ian Whittell
Guardiola has challenged his defending champions to prove they are no one-hit wonders when they start the new Champions League campaign with a home group clash against Red Star Belgrade.
Manchester City’s dominant European campaign, and treble-winning heroics, appeared to have satisfied the last great burning need from the club’s Abu Dhabi owners to conquer the continent.
Chief executive Ferran Soriano even admitted last week that he felt a weight had been lifted by the success against Inter Milan in Istanbul in June.
But Guardiola will not accept such an attitude from his players as they look to maintain a run of 26 home European games unbeaten; 24 of them wins.
Credit: Reuters/Jason Cairnduff
“He feels that? That’s good,” joked Guardiola. “What’s important is the players don’t feel relaxed.
“So the board and the chairman and the CEOs are relaxed, that’s good. They don’t play tomorrow, they don’t score goals.
“For our club to win the Champions League is something incredible, incredible. But in perspective, for the Champions League, how many teams won one Champions League, just one? A lot.
“But there are a lot who won two, a lot won three, a lot won four, a lot won five, there is one team won a lot, a lot. So, in perspective, in the Champions League we didn’t do anything special.
“Just one. But for us, of course, this club didn’t have it and to be part of that, we’re incredibly proud.”
6:27PM
Manchester City heavy favourites as they begin Champions League defence
The Champions League group stage draw was kind to holders Manchester City, and they begin their campaign with what appears a home banker against 1991 European Cup winners Red Star Belgrade.
Some bookmakers price the Serbian team at 33-1 or even bigger, longer odds than pretty much every Premier League opponent would be at the Etihad (with the possible exception of Luton Town). That gives you some idea of the task facing Red Star tonight, with City to face RB Leipzig and Young Boys later in the group.
Pep Guardiola’s ability to rotate is hampered by some injury problems, with John Stones, Jack Grealish and Mateo Kovacic still unavailable. Grealish’s absence ought to mean another start for Jeremy Doku, who capped an impressive performance at West Ham with a goal. The Belgian winger could prove to be a sneaky-good purchase, for a City squad who have lacked flyers on the outside since the departures of Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling and this year Riyad Mahrez. Guardiola, on the touchline again after undergoing a back operation in Barcelona, could choose to give back-up goalkeeper Stefan Ortega a start in place of Ederson. City face Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Saturday.
What do we know about Red Star, apart from the fact Billy Bragg’s uncle once played for them? Well, it’s their first appearance in the group stages since 2019-20, when they found themselves in a group with Bayern Munich and Tottenham. Spurs beat them 9-0 across the two games. The season before, Red Star found themselves in a group with PSG, Liverpool and Napoli and unsurprisingly finished bottom, but did beat Jurgen Klopp’s team 2-0 in Belgrade. Experienced defender Aleksandar Dragovic will be one of the familiar names for watchers of European competition, having played for Bayer Leverkusen, Dynamo Kyiv and Basel, and spent a season at Leicester City. Manager Barak Bakhar is in his first season having come from Maccabi Haifa.
Full team news on the way shortly.
