No Kompany at Christmas for Guardiola

The Citizens (8-3-1) ensured they would be in the round of 16 in Europe’s most prestigious club tournament for the fourth straight year with a 1-1 draw at Borussia Monchengladbach on Wednesday.

Man City will face one of the winners of the other groups in the Round of 16, as they are in line to finish second in Group C. The list now includes AS Monaco, Borussia Dortmund, PSG and Juventus, and one of Besiktas, Benfica and Napoli, who could each potentially win Group B.

Burnley have reason to believe they can pick up a favourable result against City, given a number of their impressive home results this season.

He said: “I think all the teams will be really tough. Big congratulations to my team”. A home fixture against Celtic could be used as a tune-up but I feel that Manchester City will put out a strong line-up for that match.

Turf Moor is a tight little ground and not an easy place to visit and Manchester City will not relish it. Pep often makes changes following Champions League matches so expect to see some fresh faces in the side.

However, after apologising to Pep Guardiola, Toure is now back in the fold and retained his place in City’s starting line-up for the trip to Burnley on Saturday.

Guardiola’s men have stumbled in recent Premier League matches that follow hot on the heels of European ties.

Former Borussia Dortmund midfielder Ilkay Gundogan threatened an equaliser 10 minutes before the interval as he collected Silva’s flighted corner 18 yards out, only for his effort to be palmed behind by Switzerland stopper Yann Sommer.

After eight games in the Champions League being there with top teams like Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham is good – and of course with Manchester United, because United are getting better in their last games so are now a real contender to win the Premier League.

“It is a derby, it is many things”. I was a trainer here in Germany and know how hard Gladbach are. The hosts desperately needed a win to stay in the competition, but neither team looked good enough to grab a victor.

However, after Toure had apologised on his agent’s behalf, the 33-year-old returned for only his second appearance of the campaign in a 2-1 win away at Crystal Palace last weekend. “So maybe we deserved to fall a goal behind”.

“There will be nearly no training for the game at Burnley, but we will try to be there and have a good performance”. We will try to go on like that.

City’s John Stones, who had earlier been nutmegged by Nico Elvedi, lost possession in the air to Stindl, who charged to the edge of the box.