The latest episode in Manchester City’s quest for a first Champions League title will take place in Gelsenkirchen, where they face Schalke.
City qualified top of a group that contained Lyon, Shakhtar Donetsk and Hoffenheim , and the Premier League leaders will start as hot favourites to overcome their German opposition.
Schalke languish in 14th in the Bundesliga and have won only one of their last five games in all competitions.
They eased through Group D ahead of Galatasaray and Lokomotiv Moscow but behind Porto, and this encounter will represent another step up in class.
| Game | Schalke vs Manchester City |
| Date | Wednesday, February 20 |
| Time | 8:00pm GMT / 3:00pm ET |
| Stream (US only) | fubo TV (7-day free trial) |
TV Channel, Live Stream & How To Watch
In the United States (US), the game can be watched live and on-demand with fuboTV (7-day free trial).
New users can sign up for a free seven-day trial of the live sports streaming service, which can be accessed via iOS, Android, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and Apple TV as well as on a web browser.
| US TV channel | Online stream |
|---|---|
| Galavision / Univision NOW | fubo TV (7-day free trial) |
In the United Kingdom (UK), the game will be shown on BT Sport 2 and streamed on the BT Sport Live app.
| UK TV channel | Online stream |
|---|---|
| BT Sport 2 | BT Sport Live |
Squads & Team News
| Position | Schalke players |
|---|---|
| Goalkeepers | Fahrmann, Nubel |
| Defenders | Mendyl, Nastasic, Rudy, Oczipka, Sane, Bruma |
| Midfielders | McKennie, Serdar, Bentaleb, Konoplyanka, Stambouli, Caligiuri, Harit |
| Forwards | Uth, Matondo, Burgstaller, Skrzybski, Teuchert, Kutucu |
Schalke had a number of selection headaches ahead of Wednesday’s match, with Omar Mascarell suspended for the visit of the English champions.
Alessandro Schopf is ruled out along with Breel Embolo, but Benjamin Stambouli has an outside chance of playing some role.
Guido Burgstaller and Steven Skrzybksi had been concerns leading up to this game but played a full role in Tuesday’s training session.
Schalke starting XI: Fahrmann, Caligiuri, Sane, Bruma, Nastasic, Oczipka, Bentaleb, McKennie, Mendyl, Suat Serdar, Uth.
| Position | Manchester City players |
|---|---|
| Goalkeepers | Ederson, Grimshaw, Muric |
| Defenders | Walker, Danilo, Laporte, Otamendi, Sandler, Zinchenko, Kompany |
| Midfielders | Sterling, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Sane, B. Silva, D. Silva, Fernandinho, Mahrez, Foden |
| Forwards | Aguero |
John Stones and Gabriel Jesus have been left out of the travelling party due to minor injury problems.
Claudio Bravo, Benjamin Mendy and Fabian Delph remain sidelined.
Vincent Kompany returns to the squad, while a host of players rested for the FA Cup win over Newport at the weekend will return to the fold for this clash, including Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne.
Manchester City starting XI: Ederson, Walker, Laporte, Otamendi, Fernandinho, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Silva, Bernardo, Sterling, Aguero
Betting & Match Odds
Man City are red-hot favourites, with bet365 offering a price of 3/10 for them to win this leg. Schalke are 10/1 to cause an upset while the draw is priced at 5/1.
Match Preview
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Manchester City may still be active in four competitions, but the defending Premier League champions have their eyes especially set on European Cup glory this season.
The Champions League title remains absent from the club’s glittering trophy cabinet, and there is a belief that sealing such a crown would elevate the team to a previously unattained status .
“If you want to be in the international elite, as a club and as a player, you need to clinch this trophy,” Ilkay Gundogan argued to UEFA’s official website.
City’s record in the Champions League, given their investment, has been poor. They have made it beyond the last 16 on only two occasions, with a semi-final in 2015-16 the best they have mustered.
Last year, it was Liverpool at the quarter-final stage who got the better of them.
“We've experienced a lot in the Champions League in recent years – not all of it positive, of course. We should've won it at least once,” Gundogan, a player who knows the Bundesliga well from his time with Nurnberg and Borussia Dortmund, said.
“Every club, every team, every single player would like to lift this trophy sometime. The competition to win it is so big year in, year out, so your chances are not that good, but there's a team that wins it every year.”
And, while the media mulls over Pep Guardiola’s side doing a potential quadruple – an achievement never completed previously – the players are more circumspect about their chances .
“I think the goal is not to win the four competitions; the goal is to win every game and, the further you progress, you want to win the next game,” Kevin De Bruyne, another Bundesliga alumnus, said ahead of a week that will also bring them the Carabao Cup final, in which they will face Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday.
“But to win all four and set that standard is nearly impossible.”
Schalke coach Domenico Tedesco is looking forward to the occasion and will not write his team off.
“There is nothing like a knockout match in the Champions League against a team that is one of the best in the world,” he said.
“We've worked a lot to be able to play such a game and have fun. Logically, we see a chance of winning, but, of course, we aren't the favourites.
“Manchester City are a very strong team, we will need a red-letter day and have to give it our all.”
With only six wins from 22 Bundesliga matches this season, Schalke have had precious few such days to enjoy this season and anything other than comfortable progress for the English side would be very surprising indeed.
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