STAR PREVIEW Tues: Sevilla v Manchester City

Manchester City kick off their attempt to win that elusive first Champions League with a Group G match against Sevilla at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium on Tuesday night.

Sevilla have not started their La Liga campaign well and certainly appear to be feeling the loss of defenders Jules Kounde and Diego Carlos who both departed the club in the summer.

Julen Lopetegui’s side are currently winless in La Liga and sit in a lowly 17th-place after one draw and three defeats from their opening four fixtures.

Kounde came back to haunt them in their last outing as his new club Barcelona eased past Sevilla 3-0 thanks to goals from summer signings Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski and young centre-back Eric Garcia.

If those Kounde and Carlos departures weren’t bad enough, Sevilla have suffered injuries to Marcao and Karim Rekik in defence and look pretty depleted at the back.

I guess it is lucky they are not facing the most devastating and in-form striker in world football in their next fixture, right…?

Sevilla v Manchester City
UEFA Champions League Group Stage
8pm BT Sport 2

HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD
(Maximum 10 matches)
NOV 2015 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Sevilla 1-3 Man City
OCT 2015 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Man City 2-1 Sevilla

It really has been the Erling Haaland show so far for Manchester City this season. So much so that you can visibly see how sick his manager Pep Guardiola is of getting asked about only him in press conferences.

Haaland has smashed any doubts over whether he would be able to adapt to the Premier League or adjust to City’s finely-tuned rhythm by making a rip-roaring start to his debut Premier League campaign with the Cityzens.

The Norwegian striker has already reached double-figures in the league; scoring 10 goals in his first six appearances for City, which has included hat-tricks against Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest.

When Haaland is in the kind of form he is in, it is incredibly difficult to stop him and Sevilla will have their work cut out keeping him at bay on Tuesday night.

Aside from Haaland, who has dominated the headlines, Julian Alvarez – who arrived from River Plate in the summer – has gone under the radar with some impressive performances.

City will be keen to bounce back from a disappointing and frustrating 1-1 draw against Aston Villa in their last outing and, with Sevilla in the mess that they are in, you could argue they could not have wished for a better fixture.

I am expecting this to be a comfortable night’s work for Manchester City and I think there will be goals in this game. We’re backing a win and over 2.5 goals for Guardiola’s side with a correct score of 3-1 to the away team.

JOE CITRONE

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