It has been a busy period since the international break for those competing in the Champions League and Premier League and Manchester City felt the full effect of that against Ipswich on Saturday with multiple players going off with injuries.

Erling Haaland, Antoine Semenyo and Mateo Kovacic all seemed to pick up knocks during the victory at the Etihad with Haaland and Semenyo hobbling off at full time and Kovacic being hooked at the break.

Manager Enzo Maresca clearly sees this game as an opportunity to rest some legs anyway but with games coming thick and fast, he needs his full squad to be fit and ready.

This will be the first meeting between Manchester City and AEK Athens - City haven’t lost any of their four games against Greek sides (W3 D1), nor have they conceded a single goal.

Jonty Colman
BBC Sport Journalist

As well as the collective success of both sides, the individuals starring at PSG and Barcelona are among the world's best.

Of the top 14 players on the 2025 Ballon d'Or list, eight of them were current players at PSG or Barcelona.

Dembele and team-mate Vitinha finished first and third respectively, with Barcelona teenager Lamine Yamal second.

Next Monday's 2026 Ballon d'Or list is also likely to be a similar story. Of the 30 players listed for the award, 13 play for the two clubs.

Lamine Yamal, who has eight La Liga goals this season, is among the favourites for this year's award.

"He's still only 19 and he's still very much developing," said European football expert Julien Laurens. "The variety that he has in his game, the dribbling and the skills - just everything that he does is just so, so good now.

"You take him out - [it is] still a very, very good team. Let's say you put Adeyemi on the right and Gordon on the left, and Raphinha - it's still a great front three. But you put Lamine Yamal in there and suddenly it becomes a phenomenal front three."

Last week Erling Haaland scored two goals against PSG to surpass former Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero as the club's all-time leading Champions League goalscorer.

Despite bagging his 37th then 38th goals for City in Europe's elite competition, Enzo Maresca's men still ended up on the losing side in a 4-2 defeat.

Haaland continues to add to his tally having now scored 61 goals in 60 games in the competition.

If he wants to add more tonight he will have to do so from the bench. He looked to be in some pain at the weekend when he hobbled off so Enzo Maresca will hope not to call on his star man.

Image source, Getty Images

It's been tough for Florian Wirtz since his £115m move from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool in the summer of 2025.

The German hasn't hit the heights expected of him just yet but Sunday's performance in the win at Brentford showed signs of improvement, albeit the Bees ended the game with nine men.

He has to settle for a place among the substitutes tonight, though.

Jonty Colman
BBC Sport Journalist

Image source, Getty Images

At the helm of Paris St-Germain is Spaniard Luis Enrique, who has plenty of connections with Barcelona.

Enrique spent eight years of his playing career at the Nou Camp between 1996 and 2004, before managing the club's B team in his first managerial role.

Enrique, 56, spent three years in charge of Barca's first team between 2014 and 2017 before going on to manage Spain.

As Barca head coach, Enrique won La Liga twice, the Copa del Rey three times and the 2014-15 Champions League title.

Enrique is not alone in swapping Barcelona for the French capital. Forward Ferran Torres made the same move over the summer shortly after scoring the winning goal for Spain in the World Cup final.

PSG's star forward Ousmane Dembele also spent time at Barca before joining PSG.

Manchester City academy graduate Floyd Samba has earned his second call up to the senior squad this season.

The 17-year-old impressed in his last outing, scoring two goals in the EFL Cup win over Norwich.

The son of former Blackburn defender Christopher Samba, his brother Tyrone is also in City's academy.

They say not to fall in love with loan players but that's exactly what's happening at Liverpool with Ronald Araujo.

On loan from Barcelona, Araujo has become increasingly important with Conor Bradley out until January and Jeremie Frimpong also missing through injury.

He said on Monday: "I came from a big side, as is Liverpool. I think people here, it's almost like they are more intense when you go down the street, when you go out to the centre of Liverpool, or when you go out to eat something. But that's lovely. You see how they experience football themselves.

"I am really happy here. My family is very happy and that's also very important. I'm just really hungry to go on this season and give the best I can of myself and continue to learn and grow as a player. I'm having that game time and that's what I want and then we'll see what happens and what I want for the future."

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Liverpool are one of nine teams to have won both of their Champions League games this season.

Another victory tonight will go a long way to pushing Andoni Iraola's side towards the knockouts.

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In Athens today it has been 26C and sunny.

In Manchester it is absolutely freezing and chucking it down. (Standard). And it turns out Greek teams are no fans of playing in England.

Of the 20 occasions that a Greek side have played an English side away from home in the European Cup/Champions League, only once have they returned victorious (D2 L17): Arsenal 2-3 Olympiakos in September 2015.

Aadam Patel
Football Reporter at Anfield

Andoni Iraola makes six Liverpool changes from Saturday's win at Brentford, with Ryan Gravenberch returning and there's also starts for Kostas Tsimikas, Trey Nyoni and Lewis Koumas.

Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Bradley Barcola are all on the bench. This is the first of four home games for Liverpool between now and next Sunday and in that time, they take on Brighton and Arsenal in the Premier League.

Liverpool: Alisson; Araujo, Van Dijk, Jacquet, Tsimikas; Nyoni, Gravenberch; Ngumoha, Mac Allister, Gakpo; Koumas.

Subs: Mamardashvili, Woodman, Gomez, Kerkez, Wirtz, Isak, Barcola, Chambers, McConnell, Danns, Laffey.

Shamoon Hafez
Football reporter at Etihad Stadium

The big team news from Etihad Stadium is that Manchester City striker Erling Haaland is only on the bench after sustaining a blow to the foot against Ipswich on Saturday.

Manager Enzo Maresca has taken this game as an opportunity to shuffle the pack around with eight changes from the weekend.

Jeremy Doku, Iliman Ndiaye, Ayyoub Bouaddi, Mateo Kovacic, Nico O'Reilly and Matheus Nunes all drop out.

There are starts for the likes of Floyd Samba up front, Ruben Dias, Abdukodir Khusanov and summer signing Allan.

Man City XI: Donnarumma, Lewis, Khusanov, Dias, Gvardiol, Anderson, Fernandez, Allan, Cherki, Foden, Samba.

Speaking of team news...

Shamoon Hafez
Football reporter at Etihad Stadium

Manchester City face the prospect of being without star striker Erling Haaland for tonight's game.

But who can replace him?

One option mooted by Enzo Maresca is midfielder Phil Foden, who ended his barren run in front of goal on Saturday by scoring his first Premier League goal since December.

"Phil can be one of the solutions," said Maresca. "He played already in the past in that position so could play again, but at the moment the number nine is Erling."

Could summer signing Iliman Ndiaye be another option?

The Senegal international was often deployed as a striker in Sheffield United's promotion-winning campaign in 2022-23, scoring 14 goals to help the Blades return to the Premier League.

Last season, Pep Guardiola said Rayan Cherki fits playing in the false nine role "perfectly", with the Frenchman scoring in a 2-0 Carabao Cup quarter-final win over Brentford when used in that position.

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England isn't a very happy hunting ground for Villarreal...

The Spaniards haven’t won any of their 16 games against English sides in the Champions League (D6 L10), scoring just five goals in total, and losing each of the last nine in a row.

Manchester City fans, what have you made of goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma this season?

The Italian is still thought of as one of the best goalkeepers in the world but it has not always felt like that this campaign.

Often susceptible to a mistake and occasionally a bit nerve-inducing at the back, he has conceded four goals from just 1.9 xG on target faced in the Champions League this season – excluding own goals, this is the third worst differential by any goalkeeper this term (-2.1), only behind Bodo/Glimt’s Julian Faye Lund (-3.1) and LASK’s Lukas Jungwirth (-2.6).

And that's before you even get started on that kit...

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