Man City vs Liverpool team news confirmed as Erling Haaland fitness call made

Erling Haaland has been left out of the squad for Manchester's City clash with Liverpool.

Haaland was left on the bench for the defeat to Real Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League play-off on Wednesday. The Norwegian had picked up an issue in the hammering of Newcastle last week, with boss Pep Guardiola confirming he was facing a race to be fit to face Liverpool.

“Don’t know yet. Tomorrow we will know,” he said in Friday’s press conference. “It’s better to have Erling on the pitch. Everybody is responsible for the good things and bad things for the team but obviously with Erling we are better.”

With Haaland not fit enough to play any part against the Reds, Omar Marmoush will lead the line for Guardiola's side. The City boss has opted to make four changes to his starting line-up.

Rico Lewis, Nathan Ake, Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku all start, with Ruben Dias, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva being benched. John Stones meanwhile joins Haaland in the stands, having suffered an injury just eight minutes into the midweek defeat to Madrid.

De Bruyne will captain the hosts at the Etihad, with City confirming Haaland's injury status. A club statement read: "Erling Haaland is not fully fit and not part of today’s matchday squad."

Liverpool meanwhile had been sweating on the fitness of Cody Gakpo, with Conor Bradley, Joe Gomez and Tyler Morton having been definitively ruled out. Gakpo has been named on the bench, with the only change to the Reds' starting line-up seeing Luis Diaz replace Diogo Jota.

Darwin Nunez will start on the bench after boss Arne Slot called him out following his dreadful miss against Aston Villa on Wednesday. Liverpool can pull 11 points clear of closest challengers Arsenal should they beat City, but Slot is hoping to keep his side focused on Guardiola's team.

"I think the biggest question to be asked is from Man City because we face a strong team again, like we faced [at] Villa. Yeah, Arsenal plays before us but we know that doesn't make the game easier or more difficult than we have against City. We know we have 12 games to play and Arsenal has 13 games to play," he said.

"If we constantly look at Arsenal or what other teams are doing, that would not help us. We already know how difficult it is to go to the Etihad, so we don't need Arsenal to get involved in that even more. What I always expect from City since Pep is there: a great football team that can play so well.

"They've had maybe one or two months in the seven or eight years he's there now that weren't the best, maybe partly because of injuries as well. Injuries come back, they've signed three or four players, I can see them coming back already if you look at the result against Newcastle.

"So what you expect is what everybody expects if you go to the Etihad if you play against City. You have to suffer as well and work really hard to keep them away from your goal because they are so, so good in ball possession. But they face a strong team as well that hasn't lost for 22 games."

Manchester City XI: Ederson; Rico Lewis, Abdukodir Khusanov, Nathan Ake, Josko Gvardiol; Nico, Kevin De Bruyne (c); Savinho, Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku; Omar Marmoush

Liverpool XI: Alisson; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Andy Robertson; Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch; Mo Salah, Curtis Jones, Luis Diaz

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