Croatian international defender Josko Gvardiol has been named on the bench for his Manchester City debut tonight, as the club open their Premier League campaign against Burnley. Gvardiol joined City in a £77.6million deal last week from RB Leipzig, but isn’t brought straight in for his first start, instead being named among the substitutes.
The treble winners are without both Ruben Dias and John Stones for the trip to Turf Moor, but Kevin De Bruyne does start for City, despite having missed much of pre-season with a hamstring injury sustained in June’s Champions League final win over Inter Milan. Having come off the bench against Arsenal during Sunday’s Community Shield loss, the Belgian international is now set to start at Turf Moor. Will Gvardiol’s long-awaited debut come later on this evening? We’ll have to wait and see.
Manchester City will start premier league veteran Rico Lewis in the left-back role tonight while in-form midfielder Phil Foden takes his place in the starting XI as Jack Grealish makes way. At the head of their offensive line is Erling Haaland — the prolific Norwegian hot-shot set to add to his stellar premier league goals record.
The side, which can be seen in full below, will assemble on Friday, August 11th, at 8pm BST when they face off against Burnley at Turf Moor. Sky Sports will be providing live broadcasting for viewers and pundits alike.
Manchester City XI: Ederson, Walker, Akanji, Ake, Lewis, Rodri, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Foden, Alvarez, Haaland.
Subs: Ortega Moreno, Phillips, Kovacic, Grealish, Laporte, Gomez Gvardiol, Palmer, McAtee.
This match sees another opportunity for Pep Guardiola’s men to make a statement: can they build on their blistering start? With Haaland rearing to go and his side showing no signs of slowing down any time soon, they may just get the perfect result to continue their remarkable rise.