Man City v AEK Athens - 20 Oct 2026 | Manchester City F.C. Manchester City FC - Official Website of Man City F.C.

AEK ATHENS XI: Brignoli, Rota, Moukoudi (C), Relvas, Pilios, Majer, Arriaga, Marin, Joao Mario, Varga, Jovic

Subs: Balamotis, Kairinen, Gacinovic, Zubkov, Koita, Mantalos, Vida, Lykogiannis, Vitalis, Zini

Eight changes for tonight's game against AEK Athens with Floyd Samba and ALlan coming in for their first Champions League starts.

Rico Lewis, Abdukodir Khusanov, Joško Gvardiol, Elliot Anderson, Enzo Fernández and Rayan Cherki all come into the starting XI.

CITY XI: Donnarumma, Lewis, Khusanov, Dias (C), Gvardiol, Anderson, Fernández, Allan, Cherki, Foden, Samba.

Subs: Rulli, Bettinelli, Guéhi, Ndiaye, Haaland, Doku, Aït-Nouri, Reis, Bouaddi, McAidoo, Braithwaite.

The fact this is our 150th Champions League game has had me reminiscing on our journey to this point.

This competition has given me some of the best moments of my life and I know it’s the same for many other Blues out there.

It’s also got an incredible ability to cause pain and heartbreak – personally I'm thinking mostly of that Spurs quarter-final in 2019 here – that rivals any elite sport.

The Etihad has perhaps seen more of that drama than almost any other location in Europe over the last 15 years or so and while the defeats may hurt at the time, we’re lucky to be part of football that means so much.

There’s also been plenty of trips that Blues won’t forget to corners of our continent that they may not otherwise have considered.

And when that final whistle went in Istanbul in 2023, there's not a thing I would have changed.

Last time out, Erling Haaland scored twice to become our greatest ever goalscorer in the Champions League. In the build-up to tonight's match, watch each of those 38 goals that saw him overtake Sergio Aguero at the top of the charts and also become the sixth highest goalscorer in the history of the competition. Enjoy each of those goals from the Norwegian master.

We’ve already had one match against AEK Athens today with our Youth League encounter ending 1-1.

After falling behind, Oliver Reiss’ side dominated possession throughout with Teddie Lamb grabbing an equaliser.

But we missed out on a winner although we picked up our first point of the campaign.

Matchday Live! is underway at the top of the page with host Cel Spellman who is joined in the studio by Steph Houghton and Izzy Christiansen with FG and Paul Dickov pitchside.

It feels like winter is truly setting in in Manchester now. It’s been a dark, wet day in the build up to this one. Not exactly the weather that will make Greek players, staff and fans feel at home, but that hasn’t stopped them wearing their colours in great numbers.

One thing we all know about Greek football sides is the atmosphere and passion they bring to every single game. With their yellow and black colours, I’m sure it will be a real spectacle this evening.

As for the action on the pitch, City will very much be targeting the three points having won one and drawn one so far.

There’s still a long way to go in the League Phase of course, but there’s no need to make it more complicated than it needs to be come January.

Here’s the kick-off times for wherever you are in the world.

We’ll bring you the starting line-up at 18:45 (UK), but before then, Enzo Maresca gave an update after some injury concerns from Saturday’s 3-2 victory over Ipswich Town.

There was some bad news surrounding Antoine Semenyo with the City winger set to miss the next eight weeks of the season through injury.

Enzo Maresca said that Matheus Nunes, Nico O’Relly and Mateo Kovačić confirmed they were okay and said he hope to have Erling Haaland in the squad after getting a kick late in the win over the Tractor Boys.