Man City academy boosted by Champions League rule change

straight to your inbox England and Manchester City captain Steph Houghton has joined fellow Lionesses Anita Asante and Danielle Carter to call on players to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement when the Women’s Super League season kicks off next weekend. Houghton revealed that teams have been taking a knee in their pre-season friendlies, and added that she expected it to continue in Saturday’s Women’s Community Shield match against Chelsea at Wembley.

straight to your inbox Pep Guardiola is just as disappointed at Manchester City's season as the chairman is, according to Khaldoon Al Mubarak. The Catalan coach revealed ahead of the Champions League knockouts that Al Mubarak was not happy with him over the way Liverpool had run away with the Premier League title, and the chairman did not suggest otherwise when given the opportunity to counter that claim.

straight to your inboxAleks Zinchenko has broken the dressing room silence over Pep Guardiola’s Champions League tactics.The Manchester City defender implied that the manager got things wrong by picking three centre backs in the quarter-final against Lyon.And his fiancee, sports reporter Vlada Sedan, joined in the criticism, calling the tactical set-up employed by Guardiola a “bummer”.Zinchenko has been out of favour at City, only starting once since his mistake had led to defeat at Southampton,

straight to your inbox Manchester City put on a special trophy presentation at their training ground to mark the league title won by their U18s last season. Gareth Taylor's youngsters were closing in on the U18 Premier League North in March, 12 points clear of second-placed Liverpool with five games to play compared to the seven of their nearest rivals.

straight to your inboxPep Guardiola insists Manchester City will recover from their agonising defeat to Lyon to attempt to reach the Champions League semi-finals next season.City were firm favourites to progress against Lyon in the one-legged affair, but were below-par on the night when everything went against them. Lyon deservedly led at half time, before Kevin De Bruyne's strike eventually pulled them level.

straight to your inboxPep Guardiola said his Manchester City players were well-prepared to play in an unusual formation before crashing out of the Champions League.The Blues began with three central defenders, but never truly looked like themselves until Guardiola switched things by replacing Fernandinho with Riyad Mahrez ten minutes into the second half.That led to the manager being severely criticised for tinkering with City’s set-up.But he said they had been developing it on their Lisbon

straight to your inboxIlkay Gundogan has warned his Manchester City teammates that they are only one mistake away from exiting the Champions League.City face Lyon in Saturday's quarter-final in Lisbon, in the new one-game format for this season's adapted Champions League finale.The Blues booked their place in the last eight by overcoming Real Madrid by 2-1 for the second time, capitalising on two mistakes from Raphael Varane in the visitors' defence.And Gundogan has warned City that the one-game

straight to your inbox Manchester City have landed lucky with the allocation of training facilities during the Champions League finals tournament in Lisbon. The Blues will face Lyon in the quarter-final on Saturday night, and flew out to Portugal on Monday afternoon for the unique World Cup-style finish to this season’s competition.

straight to your inboxAfter a brief break following the conclusion of the Premier League, Manchester City will have their biggest game of the season so far on Friday when they take on Real Madrid in the Champions League.City hold the advantage going into the last-16 second leg after their historic 2-1 victory at the Bernabeu back in February thanks to goals from Gabriel Jesus and Kevin De Bruyne.However, Madrid have gone from strength-to-strength since that match and have won an unlikely La Liga

straight to your inboxPep Guardiola must name what is arguably his most important starting XI of the season as Real Madrid visit the Etihad in the Champions League.Plenty has changed in the five months since Manchester City beat Real at the Bernabeu in February, with Sergio Aguero's injury potentially a huge blow to Guardiola's side.

straight to your inbox Sergio Ramos will be at the Etihad on Friday for Real Madrid's Champions League match with Manchester City despite not being part of the matchday squad. Ramos is suspended for the second leg of the last-16 clash after being shown a red card for hauling down Gabriel Jesus in the final moments of the 2-1 win for Pep Guardiola's side at the Bernabeu.

straight to your inboxReal Madrid's Militao confident ahead of City clashReal Madrid defender Eder Militao has made some bullish comments ahead of their trip to Manchester for Friday night’s Champions League meeting.Pep Guardiola’s men boast a 2-1 advantage from the Bernabeu, and the La Liga champions will be without club captain Sergio Ramos after his sending off in the first leg.Militao is set to feature in Ramos’ place and is confident of Los Blancos’ chances of turning the tie around.

straight to your inbox Manchester City could actually be helped against Real Madrid by the absence of fans, according to former player Nedum Onuoha. As with every game since football returned in June, Friday's Champions League last-16 clash will be played in an empty stadium as countries continue to try to limit the spread of coronavirus.

straight to your inbox Bayern Munich director Oliver Kahn has admitted that Manchester City ’s victory in over-turning Uefa’s European ban has made it tougher for Bayern to win the Champions League. And the former Germany goalkeeper called for tougher financial fair play (FFP) rules to “get more balanced competition”.

straight to your inboxNew details of Manchester City's 2020/21 away kit appear to have been leaked as the club prepare to release the new strip on Monday.City will unveil their new Puma away shirt at 8am on Monday according to their website, and it is expected to be the black and navy blue 'architecture' design that has been 'leaked' previously.

straight to your inbox Fresh allegations made by Der Spiegel contain one glaring error which calls into question the balance of their investigation. The German newspaper has published a fresh batch of hacked emails which it says show that Manchester City misled the Court of Arbitration for Sport.