Preview: Man City v Porto (Weds)

by JP Lonergan , 21 February 2012

Roberto Mancini has a wide panel of players to choose from for Wednesday evening’s Europa League last 32 second leg tie against Porto at the Etihad Stadium.


The Manchester City boss has no fresh injury concerns to deal with after last week’s first leg, a game won 2-1 by the Premier League leaders in Portugal.

Yaya Toure and Mario Balotelli may well feature after making their respective returns from the African Cup of Nations and suspension in the first leg, however Owen Hargreaves and the recently-returned Carlos Tevez are not registered for the competition by the City boss.

Porto travel to Manchester having never won on English soil and knowing they have to do so if they are to stand any chance of retaining the Europa League crown they won in Dublin last May.

Their quest to stay in the competition will be done without defender Danilo. He sustained knee ligament damage after a clash with Toure in the first leg and will be out for six weeks.

Boss Vitor Pereira must also do without long-term absentee Emidio Rafael, while Austrian forward Marc Janko is not eligible after his move from FC Twente.

The tie’s overall winners will face Legia Warsaw or Sporting Lisbon in the competition’s last 16.

Man City (from):
Hart, Pantilimon, Richards, Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Savic, K Toure, Clichy, Kolarov, Nasri, Milner, Johnson, Y Toure, Barry, De Jong, Pizarro, Silva, Aguero, Balotelli, Dzeko.

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Pos
Team P W D L +/- PTS
1.
Man City
38
28
5
5
64
89
2.
Man Utd
38
28
5
5
56
89
3.
Arsenal
38
21
7
10
25
70
4.
Tottenham
38
20
9
9
25
69
5.
Newcastle
38
19
8
11
5
65
6.
Chelsea
38
18
10
10
19
64
7.
Everton
38
15
11
12
10
56
8.
Liverpool
38
14
10
14
7
52
9.
Fulham
38
14
10
14
-3
52
10.
West Brom
38
13
8
17
-7
47
11.
Swansea
38
12
11
15
-7
47
12.
Norwich
38
12
11
15
-14
47
13.
Sunderland
38
11
12
15
-1
45
14.
Stoke
38
11
12
15
-17
45
15.
Wigan
38
11
10
17
-20
43
16.
Aston Villa
38
7
17
14
-16
38
17.
QPR
38
10
7
21
-23
37
18.
Bolton
38
10
6
22
-31
36
19.
Blackburn
38
8
7
23
-30
31
20.
Wolverhampton
38
5
10
23
-43
25
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