Manchester City against Napoli – assortment, statistics and inspection

The inspection of the match for Manchester City against Napoli

Kevin de Bruyne will return to a familiar environment this week, as the new Napoli club will go to Al -Ittihad to face Manchester City at its opening. European Champions League stage Thursday night.

It is the first European meeting between the two sides since the 2017-18 group, when City won at home and away, and 6-3 won success-with that success 2-1 in Manchester.

The city went to a tie against the background of a 3-0 statement of Derby Woz against Manchester United. After the successive defeats of Tottenham and Breton, Pep Guardiola men wore the operation of Phil Voden scoring goals and the Halland nets decreased twice to close points in the post -Emotional noon allocated to the late club icon Ricky Hatton.

Guardiola hopes victory will shift after a slow start of the campaign. City, the 2023 UEFA Champions League winners, bears a poor stage for the league last season, as it ranked only twenty -second in the table of 36 teams before going out in the knockout match against Real Madrid.

They lost four of the last five UCL matches, but they remain huge in Al -Ittihad – it was not defeated in 21 league or group matches (W18 D3).

They also recorded them in the opening of the Matchdays as well, with five wins and withdrawing one of the last six.

Napoli, at the same time, is full of confidence. Antonio Conte won the second crown in the first division in the last period, and they started 2025-26 with three consecutive victories in the league on Cagliari, Sassuolo and Fiorentina.

He has made new recruits on the ground – Rasmos Holund scored for the first time against Fiorentina after Kevin de Bruyne converted an early penalty.

This season represents the ninth Napoli campaign in the Champions League. Conte runs in competition with a fifth different club after previous periods of time in Juventus, Chelsea, Inter and Tottenham.

Napoli lost only three of the last 18 games/group stage (W11 D4). However, their record away against the English language teams is depressing: D3 L9 through 12 visits, including defeats to six different clubs.

Manchester City team news against Napoli

The city has many absences: Omar Marmoush (the knee), Ryan Cherke (unveiled), Ryan Ait Nuri (ankle) and Matteo Kovacic (Achilles), while John Stones faces a late fitness test after a muscle problem.

Guardiola may revolve with Rico Lewis, Nathan Aki, Niko Gonzalez, Oscar Bob and Savinho all pushing to the beginning.

Halland will definitely show his goal in the Fiftieth Champions League. Norwegian scored 49 in 48 games – with 62 games of Ruud Van Nisstelroy and soon the current record for this landmark.

For Napoli, De Bruyne was appointed to have an emotional reunion with his former club after a decade in Manchester. Belgian midfielder has already scored twice this season. However, the Romelu Lukaku (knee) (knee) was excluded from the team, while Prince Rrahmani (knee strings), nikita (Hand) and Alex Mert (muscles) are also missing.

Hojlund will compete with Lorenzo Lucca for the role of the central striker. The Scott McTominay midfield, Serie A player for this year in 2024-25, will be likely to display the Billy Gilmore may have to settle on the bench.