Match Preview for Monaco v Manchester City
Pep Guardiola will have the chance to avenge a Champions League humbling when Manchester City continue their league phase campaign with an away game with Monaco on Wednesday.
City began the league phase with an impressive 2-0 win over Napoli, and now head to the Stade Louis II, a venue where they experienced a humbling Champions League exit at the hands of Monaco in the last 16 in 2017.
The teams have obviously changed significantly since that tie eight years ago, and City are the heavy favourites to maintain their momentum with another victory.
City put five past Burnley in the Premier League last Saturday, while Monaco were stunned 3-1 by Lorient in Ligue 1.
The Principality club were beaten 4-1 at Club Brugge in their league phase opener, but Guardiola is not taking them lightly.
“What can I say? Always for a long time I have admiration for Monaco players,” Guardiola said.
“I remember a UEFA Super Cup final with Barcelona [against Monaco]. Always they have a good team, they link with the channels, they are really aggressive in the game.
“Hopefully we can read good what we have to do and try to take an important victory.”
Asked if he was concerned about the visit of City in the wake of the surprise defeat at Lorient, Monaco boss Adi Hutter said: “We need to analyse this match as quickly as possible so that we can be 100 percent focused on Manchester City.
“They’re one of the best teams in the world, we’ll have to do our best, and maybe we’ll have a chance to come away with something, but we know who we’re facing.
“They’ll be the favorites, but we’ll prepare the team as best we can.”
Team News for Monaco v Manchester City
Monaco’s midfield is severely depleted for the visit of City.
Lamine Camara, Denis Zakaria, Aleksandr Golovin, and Aladji Bamba have all been ruled out, with Paul Pogba not fit enough to feature.
Lukas Hradecky and Christian Mawissa are also unavailable, and teenage forward Paris Brunner is ineligible to play in the Champions League.
There is good news for Monaco, with France international Maghnes Akliouche in line to return from an illness.
City midfielder Rodri is fit and available to play. He trained on Tuesday after sitting out the win over Burnley. Rayan Cherki (thigh) also trained but is not expected to play.
“Yeah, he feels much better than the game before against Burnley,” Guardiola said of Rodri.
“Day by day see how best he feels. The day before Burnley he didn’t feel too good.
“Today he feels much better so we will see.
Predicted line-ups for Monaco v Manchester City
Monaco: Kohn; Vanderson, Dier, Kehrer, Henrique; Akliouche, Coulibaly, Teze, Fati; Balogun, Biereth
Manchester City: Donnarumma; Nunes, Stones, Gvardiol, O’Reilly; Gonzalez; Bobb, Silva, Reijnders, Doku; Haaland
How to watch Monaco v Manchester City: TV and online stream
Monaco v Manchester City will be broadcast on TNT Sports 2. It will also be available on Discovery Plus and, for Sky customers with a TNT package, on Sky Go.
The game kicks off at 8:00pm BST.
Stats for Monaco v Manchester City
- Monaco are one of only two sides, along with Real Madrid in 2024-25 (play-off round), to eliminate a Guardiola team from the Champions League before the quarter-final stage.
- After that defeat in March, 2017, Guardiola could lose his first two away games against an opponent for just the third time in his managerial career (also v Barcelona in October 2016 and Liverpool in January 2018).
- Monaco have only lost one of their seven home matches against English sides in the Champions League (W5 D1), their sole defeat coming against Arsenal in March 2015 (0-2). They have won all three that have taken place in the group/league phase: 1-0 v Liverpool in 2004-05, 2-1 v Tottenham in 2016-17 and 1-0 v Aston Villa in 2024-25.
- Guardiola has only lost two of his 33 matches taking place in the opening two rounds of a Champions League campaign (MD1 and MD2), winning 26 of those (D5). However, those two defeats came against French sides, losing against Lyon in 2018-19 and Paris Saint-Germain in 2021-22.
- Monaco have only won one of their last seven matches in the Champions League (D1 L5). Three of their five defeats in this period have been by at least three goals.
Prediction for Monaco v Manchester City
While Monaco have struggled in recent Champions League fixtures and suffered a shock defeat at the weekend, City looked to be finding their groove by the end of their rout of Burnley.
This Monaco side is a far cry from the one that stunned City in 2017, and Guardiola and his team should be able to avenge that defeat this time around.
Prediction: Monaco 1-3 Manchester City
