Man City hit by travel delay ahead of Champions League game with Sporting

Manchester City were forced to land later in Lisbon than they wanted to because of stormy weather in the Portuguese capital.

Manchester is known for its rain but heavy conditions in Lisbon on Monday all day caused a problem in the skies. City were expected to conduct media activity with Pep Guardiola and Bernardo Silva around 7.10pm, but that was pushed back by around an hour because the Blues were stuck in the air.

It is not ideal preparations for City as they look to put two defeats behind them, although they did at least train in Manchester in the morning before setting off this afternoon. Jack Grealish, John Stones and Ruben Dias were the only players missing as Guardiola named a 22-man squad that included the return of young left-back Josh Wilson-Esbrand.

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City and Sporting are both level on seven points after three games of the new-look Champions League, with two wins and a draw. City ran out 5-0 winners at this stadium in a last-of-16 tie in February 2022, before drawing the return leg 0-0.

"We expect a very difficult game, from the best team and the best coach in the world," Sporting coach Ruben Amorim said. "The big teams respond in a stronger way.

"There is talk of injuries, in the last game [Kevin] De Bruyne and Savinho were on the bench, but a lot of players can recover. We expect a very difficult game, from the best team in the world, from the best coach in the world. An exciting, difficult game and we want to be competitive and win the game."