Manchester City stayed in London after their 1-0 win over Brighton in the FA Cup semifinal yesterday at Wembley Stadium, and trained at The Valley, home of Charlton Athletic.
Staying in the capital city made perfect sense, as it’s a quick turnaround to the next fixture, leg one of two in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal tie with Tottenham Hotspur. City and Spurs will face each three different times over an 11 day span this month, with the first clash coming Tuesday night at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Let’s take a look at the fitness situation, starting first with the visitors.
Kyle Walker was subbed off with a hamstring injury at half time of the Saturday win over the Seagulls, and is considered a doubt for this one. Striker Sergio Aguero, who also missed the FA Cup clash, trained today so he should be available.
Likewise for Fabian Delph, who also returned to training at The Valley.
First choice left back Oleksandr Zinchenko is a strong doubt. City manager Pep Guardiola said after the game yesterday that winning the quadruple is almost impossible, given the toll that playing in numerous competitions for so long takes on a roster.
It won’t be too long before we know if he is right about that or not. What we do know is that no one has every stayed in contention for all four this late in a season before.
Shifting over to the hosts, Eric Dier (groin) and Erik Lamela (hamstring) are out, while Serge Aurier (hamstring) is unlikely to recover in time.
The good news is that Spurs have no new fresh injury concerns to deal with at this time. As an aside, if you missed what Tottenham star Danny Rose had to say about the prevalence of racism and all the ugliness it brings in the beautiful game these days, then you must click here and read his quotes. It’s clear that not enough has been done to try and stamp this out.
Manchester City at Tottenham Hotspur UEFA Champions League Quarter-final FYIs
Kickoff- Tuesday Apr 9, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium 8pm
Google Result Probability- Manchester City win 53% Draw 25% Tottenham Hotspur win 22%
Starting XI Predictions- Tottenham Hotspur Manchester City
Preview press conference video and quotes- coming Monday
Odds via Betfair- Manchester City win 4/5, Draw 3/1, FC Porto 10/3
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.