Steaua Bucuresti vs Manchester City
Competition: UEFA Champions League
Date: 16 August 2016 - Kick-off Time: 19:45 BST
Venue: Arena Nationala, Bucuresti
Steaua Bucharest team have already played six competitive matches and remain unbeaten with 5 wins and a draw. They have won all of their opening three Liga I matches this season and find themselves at the top of the table. Furthermore, Steaua managed to eliminate Sparta Prague in the previous Champions League round thanks to a 2-0 home win and a 1-1 draw back in the Czech Republic.
The Romanian powerhouse has a few familiar faces from the national team that was in France's group at Euro 2016 - Adrian Popa, Nicolae Stanciu and Mihai Pintilli. Anyway the latter is out through injurym as well as defensive midfield duo Lucian Filip. The Romanian vice-champions have brought two players last week, midfielders Boldrini and striker William, but they are not expected to get their chance here.
Pep Guardiola’s reign as Man City manager got off to a winning start against Sunderland on Saturday courtesy of a late own goal scored by Black Cats' defender Paddy McNair after Jermain Defoe scored the equalizer for Sunderland with 19 minutes left to play. This win might not have been very convincing, but is a certain confidence booster after experiencing a difficult pre-season as they failed to win any of their games in normal time.
Yaya Tourè has not been included in the squad that will play the play-off while captain Vincent Kompany and new signings Gundogan and Leroy Sane are all out injured. Nasri, Denayer, Bony and Mangala definitely are not in Guardiola's plans, and have been left out. Defender Nicolas Otamendi is also a doubt with a muscular problem while Willi Caballero has been Guardiola's preferred goalkeeper so far and will probably start until the arrive of new signing Claudio Bravo. The likes of Aguero, David Silva, Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne are all in line to start up front.
Probable lineups:
Steaua Bucharest:
Nita – Enache, Tamas, Tosca, Mom?ilovi? – Achim, Bourceanu – Popa, Tanase, Hamroun – Stanciu.
Manchester City:
Caballero – Sagna, Stones, Otamendi, Clichy – Fernando, Fernandinho – de Bruyne, Silva, Nolito – Aguero.
