No Jovetic, No Mangala – City Likely Line Up For AS Roma
Its here again, the league of the champions, and tonight ushers in glory, as Man City take on Roma in a must win match in the Match day 2 fixtures. We will be taking a look at the probable line up for man City, and discussing the probable outcome as well.
First, we take our minds back to the Match day 1 encounter which saw Bayern Munich take on Man City. The match was a very open encounter which saw entertaining football played by both sides, and not until the final minutes was a goal scored, by Jerome Boateng formerly of Man City. The loss relegated City to 3rd position in the group, above CSKA Moscow who were beaten 5-1 by Roma who top the group. Thus, tonight’s encounter is a dogged affair as Man City must win. A loss or draw will see them retaining their third position, with the certainty that Bayern will deal another crushing blow to CSKA Moscow, save a miracle. Losing tonight or drawing sees the group stage get harder for Man City, as they will find it hard to come up with the needed points to forge into the group of 16.
The prospects the champions of England face then is the Europa, which wouldn’t bode well for the Premier League reputation or the targets set for this season for man City by its owners, which is to improve on last season showing. Though they could win the Europa league just like Chelsea did, but it will be seen as an embarrassment that despite the abundance of riches, Man City are still yet to become elites in the football world, an indictment on the champions, that money cannot purchase class as touted by fierce rivals of the club and the media.
Below is the probable line up of the Man City squad to face Roma;
Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Demichelis, Kolarov, Fernandinho, Milner, Toure, Silva, Dzeko, Aguero, Subs; Caballero, Sagna, Mangala, Sinclair, Lampard, Navas, Jovetic.
Hart will be back between the sticks after being dropped, which caused quite a bit of controversy, Kompany sits at the heart of defense and will be expected to stop whatever is thrown against man City , and Demichelis will be partnering with him after the debacle caused by Mangala’s outing against Hull City. The reliable Zabaleta is back while Kolarov will be at the other end. Fernandinho will be expected to continue from where he left off against Hull, and Yaya Toure will of course be on duty. “Merlin”Silva will be dictating the play and he will as always be the driving force of creativity against Roma. He has done well to come back from a minor injury and should feeding the strike force of Aguero and Dzeko. These two were on target against Hull and as such will be expected to improve on their form. Expect Jovetic and Lampard to feature at a point in time during the match as Pellegrini tweaks his tactics and be sure to expect entertainment and drama in this must win match.