Here are your Manchester City evening headlines for Wednesday, April 13.
Manchester City to tow discipline line vs Atletico
Pep Guardiola knows all too well the antics Atletico Madrid will try in tonight’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Manchester City. He witnessed them during his time as Barcelona boss and saw them again when Angel Correa smashed the ball into Jack Grealish ’s face in last week's first leg.
The Catalan boss will insist on his players keeping a cool head during the game with a rash moment potentially leading to a suspension for the semi-finals, should City progress. Kevin De Bruyne and Joao Cancelo are a yellow card away from that, two players who would be sorely missed.
READ MORE: Grealish and Mahrez start — Man City fans pick line up for Atletico Madrid Champions League tie
However, the pressure is on Atletico who must overturn a 1-0 deficit if they are to take on city rivals Real Madrid for a place in the final.
Read Simon Bajkowski’s analysis here.
City to offload at least two players this summer
The Premier League champions are set to allow two players to leave the Etihad this summer, aside from Fernandinho. The Brazilian told a press conference ahead of Atletico that he is planning to move back to homeland Brazil at the end of the season.
This was not priorly known to his boss, who was taken aback by the revelation. But he will certainly be in the know about two other players who are set to depart Manchester.
One of them is Taylor Harwood-Bellis who is enjoying a loan spell at Stoke after spending the first half of the season at Vincent Kompany ’s Anderlecht. Another player is hoped to be sold for around £20m this summer.
Alvarez to join up with City squad this summer
Guardiola has confirmed that January signing Julian Alvarez will be part of City’s pre-season preparations. The 22-year-old was purchased by City for £15m before being loaned immediately to River Plate, whom they bought him from, for the rest of the European season.
The youngster has netted 41 times in 106 games for the Argentine outfit after coming through their youth system. Guardiola says he is looking forward to seeing how Alvarez will bond with the City first team.
“Next year he’ll be in preseason, for sure,” he said. “I learn from the players and I want to see him on the pitch, with his teammates, with what we want to do.
Read what else he said about Alvarez here
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