Champions League preview: Manchester City v AEK Athens

Manchester City suffered a heavy blow in their last Champions League outing, but despite their injury problems they go into Tuesday night's meeting with AEK Athens as overwhelming favourites. The matchday-three league phase fixture at the Etihad Stadium kicks off at 21:00 CEST (20:00 UK time).

A chance to bounce back after PSG defeat

Enzo Maresca's side opened their Champions League campaign with a win away at Porto, but a 4-2 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain last week left them on 3 points from two games. City lifted the mood at the weekend with a 3-2 Premier League victory over Ipswich Town.

Asked whether the margin for error had shrunk after the PSG loss, Maresca said: "I don't think one game is going to change our plan or our idea in terms of what we want to do. The target is always to try and win games. For sure, after the defeat against PSG, we need to win games and that is why I said that tomorrow is an important game."

Semenyo out for eight weeks

Injuries are City's biggest concern. Antoine Semenyo, who came on in the 77th minute against Ipswich, suffered a knee injury and faces around eight weeks on the sidelines. With two goals and three assists in all competitions this season, Semenyo had been directly involved in five goals, a tally bettered in the squad only by Erling Haaland (12) and Rayan Cherki (7).

Maresca rejected suggestions that the player's workload had been mismanaged: "We tried to save him, we tried to keep him fresh and just give him some minutes. He didn't play a lot but sometimes things happen." The Italian said he would rotate his side against AEK for workload reasons, as he did against Ipswich. Haaland, who was forced off after taking a knock late in the Ipswich game, is available.

AEK arrive on the back of Shakhtar defeat

Greek side AEK Athens began their Champions League campaign with a 1-0 home win over LASK, before losing 3-1 to Shakhtar Donetsk on matchday two to sit on 3 points from two games. Goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha is reportedly ruled out for the visitors with an ankle injury, with Alessandro Brignoli set to deputise. Up front, Luka Jović is expected to start.

The numbers also favour City. This will be the first meeting between the two clubs; City are unbeaten in four previous matches against Greek opposition (three wins, one draw) and have yet to concede a goal in those games. The last team from outside Europe's big five leagues to win at the Etihad in the Champions League was Basel, who triumphed 2-1 in March 2018. Since then City are unbeaten in 15 home games against such opponents (12 wins, three draws), scoring 46 goals at an average of 3.1 per game.