Man City make eight changes to face AEK Athens

Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has made eight changes to his starting line-up for Tuesday's Champions League home fixture against AEK Athens, the club's 150th competitive match in the competition.

Rico Lewis, Abdukodir Khusanov, Joško Gvardiol, Elliot Anderson, Enzo Fernández, Allan, Rayan Cherki and 17-year-old Floyd Samba all come into the XI. Samba will make his first Champions League start for the club.

Erling Haaland, Iliman Ndiaye, Jérémy Doku, Marc Guéhi and Ayyoub Bouaddi drop to the bench from the side that beat Ipswich 3-2 in the Premier League last Saturday. Haaland has scored a brace in both of his Champions League appearances for City this season.

Matheus Nunes, Nico O'Reilly and Mateo Kovačić are absent from the matchday squad entirely. Antoine Semenyo is also unavailable after Maresca confirmed at his pre-match press conference that the winger faces eight weeks out through injury.

Gianluigi Donnarumma starts in goal behind a back four of Lewis, Khusanov, captain Rúben Dias and Gvardiol. Anderson, Fernández and Cherki will operate in midfield, with Samba, Phil Foden and Allan leading the attack.

City go into the game with three points from their first two Champions League fixtures and currently sit 17th in the 36-team league phase table. A win would move Maresca's side up the standings. The club has not lost any of its four previous matches against Greek opposition, keeping a clean sheet in all of them.

Tuesday's fixture is also the first-ever meeting between City and AEK Athens in European competition.