Kevin De Bruyne's return to the Etihad will headline Napoli's trip to Manchester City on Thursday night as the Italian champions and Pep Guardiola's side open their 2025-26 Champions League campaign.
De Bruyne will be joined by two teammates who are themselves pretty familiar with Manchester: Rasmus Højlund and Scott McTominay. All eyes will be on how Antonio Conte uses their knowledge and expertise against what will be a partly familiar foe.
Napoli come into the game in fine form, unbeaten across three games at the start of Serie A -- they, in fact, last lost a competitive match in February -- and will be looking to make a mark on their return to Europe' elite club competition.
Meanwhile, City have had to navigate choppier waters both this season and last. Their first four Premier League games have brought two wins and two defeats and highlighted plenty of issues on the pitch. Last season they eked into the knockout phase playoffs of the Champions League after finishing 22nd before suffering a 6-3 aggregate loss to Real Madrid. They come into Thursday's match look to correct last season's troubles, and a comfortable win in the Manchester derby on Sunday would have given them a boost.
Can Guardiola get yet another winning start to a new Champions League campaign? Or will homecoming hero de Bruyne play spoilsport?
Here's everything you need to know.
How to watch:
The match will be available on TNT Sports in the U.K., Paramount+ in the United States, Stan Sport in Australia, and SonyLIV in India. You can also follow ESPN's live updates.
Key Details:
Date: Thursday, September 18 at 8.00 p.m. BST (3:00 a.m. ET; 12:30 p.m. IST and 5:00 a.m. AEST, Friday).
Venue: Etihad Stadium, Manchester.
Referee: Felix Zwayer
VAR: Christian Dingert
Team News:
Manchester City
Mateo Kovacic, M: achilles tendon, OUT, est. return early Oct
Omar Marmoush, F: knee, OUT
Rayan Cherki, M: muscle, OUT, est. return early Nov
Rayan Ait-Nouri, D: ankle, OUT
John Stones, D: knock, DOUBT
Napoli
Amir Rrahmani, D: muscle, OUT, est. return late Oct
Nikita Contini, GK: broken hand, OUT, est. return late Oct
Romelu Lukaku, F: thigh, OUT, est. return early Nov
Expected Lineups:
Manchester City (4-3-3)
GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma
RB: Rico Lewis | CB: Abdukodir Khusanov | CB: Ruben Dias | LB: Nathan Ake
CM: Tijjani Reijnders | CDM: Rodri CM: Bernardo Silva
RW: Phil Foden | CF: Erling Haaland | LW: Jeremy Doku
Manchester United (4-2-3-1)
GK: Alex Meret
RB: Giovanni Di Lorenzo | CB: Sam Beukema | CB: Alessandro Buongiorno | LB: Leonardo Spinazzola
CM: Stanislav Lobotka
RAM: Matteo Politano | CM: Frank Anguissa | CM: Kevin de Bruyne | LAM: Scott McTominay
CF: Rasmus Hojlund
Stats:
Man City like playing Italian opponents. Of their previous nine UEFA club competition matches at home against Italian opponents, they are W4, D4, L1. Last season, they started their campaign with a goalless draw against Inter Milan.
To add to that, Napoli don't like playing English opponents. They have not won any of their last ten away matches
Erling Haaland is on 49 goals in 48 UCL matches. If he scores to make it 50, he'll become the fastest ever to reach that mark. The current record is with Ruud van Nistelrooy who scored 50 in 62 matches.
Incredibly, none of Napoli's last 40 matches in Europe have been goalless.
Despite their struggles last season, City are consistently strong at home in Europe. They are now unbeaten in their last 21 UCL group/league stage games at home (W18, D3).
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