BSC Young Boys vs Manchester City (UEFA Champions League): Match Preview, Team News, Head to Head, How to Watch

Manchester City travel to Switzerland to take on BSC Young Boys as they look to maintain their 100 per cent winning start to this year’s Champions League group stage.

Europe’s premier club competition is back after over three weeks and this time round Manchester City travel take on Young Boys in an attempt to progress through the group stage in their quest to make it back-to-back Champions League titles.

So far in this iteration of the tournament, Manchester City have despatched of Bundesliga giants RB Leipzig away from home at the Red Bull Arena, and Serbian club Crvena zvezda at the Etihad Stadium via 3-1 scorelines.

Despite scoring the most goals in the competition so far, Pep Guardiola’s side are yet to keep a clean sheet which will offer some encouragement for the Swiss outfit as they hope to cause an upset against the reigning European champions.

Against Leipzig, City created chances aplenty and could have scored more than the three they managed. Phil Foden opened the scoring with a delightful finish before Loïs Openda cracked City’s defence having raced in behind to equalise despite pressure from Manuel Akanji.

Pace in behind is something Pep Guardiola will be wary of on the counter-attack against his team’s upcoming opponents, with Meschack Elia being a player who has the pace to threaten the space behind Manchester City’s defence.

Although Elia has not set the world alight in domestic competition, the Champions League is a different story. In the qualifying phase, BSC Young Boys defeated Maccabi Haifa 3-0 with Elia offering two assists, whilst also scoring in the group stage against RB Leipzig.

Young Boys looked set to hold on a 2-1 lead in their previous fixture in this tournament however an 88^th minute equaliser for Crvena zvezda resulted in the Switzerland-based club dropping two points.

However, make no mistake about it, Manchester City are clear favourites for this particular tie and should be defeating Raphaël Wicky’s team without too much difficulty, such is the quality that Pep Guardiola’s squad possess.

Away from the Champions League, City faced Brighton & Hove Albion at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon, in a game that saw the home team come out 2-1 victors following successive defeats prior to the international break.

Julián Álvarez continued his impressive start to the season by opening the scoring before Erling Haaland doubled the lead. Ansu Fati, on loan from Barcelona, scored his second goal for Brighton in the Premier League in what turned out to be just a consolation goal.

Fixture Details

Manchester City take on BSC Young Boys on Wednesday 25^th October, with kick-off at the Wankdorf Stadium in Bern scheduled for 20:00 BST.

Team News

Kevin De Bruyne remains unavailable with a long-term hamstring injury having undergone surgery on the problem in September, and is not expected to make a return to on-field action until early 2024.

Head to Head

This will be the very first time these two sides match up against each other.

Statistics

• Manchester City have only faced Swiss opposition once before. It came in the 2017/18 Champions League against FC Basel in which City won 0-4 in Switzerland before losing 2-1 at home.
• BSC Young Boys have played more games in the Champions League without ever keeping a clean sheet than any other team (14). They have conceded 29 times over 14 matches.
• Manchester City are unbeaten in their last 15 matches in this competition.
• Should Manchester City avoid defeat, Pep Guardiola could match his longest unbeaten run in the Champions League (16 matches). He did this between 2011 and 2012 whilst in charge of Barcelona.

How to Watch

For fans in the United Kingdom, the match will be televised on TNT Sports 1, with radio coverage also being provided by TalkSport and BBC Radio Manchester.

For fans living elsewhere, you can find the complete TV listings here!

You can also follow the match on the CityXtra YouTube channel via our live Watchalong show!