Manchester City vs Porto Preview: How to Watch on TV, Live Stream, Kick Off Time & Team News

Manchester City host the reigning Portuguese champions Porto in their first Champions League game of the season on Wednesday evening.

With the memory of their painful quarter-final exit at the hands of Lyon still fresh, Manchester City begin their fifth Champions League campaign under the stewardship of Pep Guardiola, against one of the tougher opponents in a group devoid of the continent's true elite, but laden with potential banana skins.

Marseilles – last season's runners-up in France – and Olympiacos are the remaining members of an interesting collection of clubs that City and Porto will meet.

However, while Porto may be the newly crowned champions of their top tier, the red half of Manchester have robbed the Dragões of their creative lynchpin, Alex Telles.

Where to Watch on TV

When Is Kick Off? Wednesday 21 October
What Time Is Kick Off? 20:00 (BST)
Where Is it Played? Etihad Stadium
TV Channel/Live Stream? BT Sport 3 (UK), fuboTV (US)
Referee? Andris Treimanis

Team News

After picking up an injury on international duty, Manchester City will, in all likelihood, again be without Kevin De Bruyne for Wednesday's match. City defeated Arsenal 1-0 on Saturday in the Belgian's absence, prior to that contest Guardiola revealed that he thought De Bruyne would be out for 'the next games'.

Oleksandr Zinchenko and Aymeric Laporte were also sidelined against the Gunners and are on course for a similar recovery time to De Bruyne. However, Benjamin Mendy and Gabriel Jesus are likely to be out until the second half of November.

Porto's only two absentees are backup goalkeeper Mouhamed Mbaye and centre-back Iván Marcano.

Predicted Lineups

Man City: Ederson; Walker, Dias, Aké, Cancelo; Gundogan, Rodri, Foden; Torres, Agüero, Sterling.

Porto: Marchesín; Manafá, Mbemba, Pepe, Sanusi; Uribe, Oliveira, Otávio; Corona, Marega, Díaz.

Recent Form

After an already shortened preseason hampered by a number of positive COVID-19 tests, City have endured a mixed start to the new campaign. Guardiola's side have tended to impress early on in matches - even during their 5-2 humbling against Leicester City, Riyad Mahrez's stunning forgotten goal preceded 25 dominant minutes.

However, City have already ceded five points from winning positions from their first four league games – the same tally they dropped in the entirety of their title-winning 2017/18 campaign.

Porto themselves let two points slip against their fierce rivals Sporting CP on Saturday, conceding an equaliser in the 87th minute. That draw followed a shock 3-2 defeat at home to Marítimo in their last match before the international break, putting a dampener on a season which began with two convincing victories.

Here's how each side has fared in their last five outings.

Man City

Man City 1-0 Arsenal (17/10)
Leeds United 1-1 Man City (3/10)
Burnley 0-3 Man City (30/9)
Leicester City 2-5 Man City (27/9)
Man City 2-1 Bournemouth (24/9)

Porto

Sporting CP 2-2 Porto (17/10)
Porto 2-3 Marítimo (3/10)
Boavista 0-5 Porto (26/9)
Porto 3-1 Braga (19/9)
Benfica 1-2 Porto (1/8)

Prediction

City may very well be without their best player in the form of De Bruyne, but the loss of Telles for Porto cannot be understated. Not only does his transfer take away one of their best defenders, it guts the team of Telles' remarkable creativity from full-back, as he regularly finished among the club's top assist providers each campaign.

Aside from the Brazilian's absence, City showed fleeting signs of returning to something approaching the good old days against Arsenal last weekend where some of the squad's less heralded players came to the fore.

If they do even begin to approach the same beguiling form of recent years, now with a finisher of Sergio Agüero's pedigree back in the front line after a prolonged injury layoff, Porto's Telles-less defence will be in for a tough night.

Prediction: Man City 3-1 Porto