Haaland’s Hot Streak Fuels City as AEK Visit the Etihad
Manchester City turn their attention back to Europe on Wednesday when AEK Athens visit the Etihad Stadium for a first-ever meeting between the clubs — and Erling Haaland could hardly be arriving in better form.
The Norwegian striker has scored five goals in his last three games and will spearhead a City side that has its full squad fit and available. City sit in a W-W-W-L-W run of form, though they have been uncharacteristically open at the back, conceding six goals in their last two matches.
AEK, unbeaten in four of their last five (D-W-W-W-L), will lean on 28-year-old Lovro Majer, who was their scorer in the 3-1 defeat to Shakhtar and will again operate from the right flank. The visitors are without Thomas Strakosh, who misses out with a wrist injury.
First meeting, clear favourite
The clubs have never faced each other, and the bookmakers give the Greeks little chance — City are as short as 1/9 for the win, with Haaland 4/11 to score. AEK have conceded six goals in their last five fixtures, and keeping City's attack quiet for 90 minutes looks a tall order.
A season of goals at both ends
City's campaign so far has been equal parts thrilling and chaotic. Enzo Maresca's side beat Ipswich Town 3-2 at the weekend to make it nine wins and one defeat from ten matches this season, and their last five fixtures have produced a combined 27 goals. A 3-0 win over Liverpool underlined their ceiling, while the goals have flowed freely throughout the autumn — City have scored 18 times across their last five outings.
The concern for Maresca is at the other end. City have conceded nine goals in their last four games, including two against Ipswich and three against Sunderland, and that leakiness cost them dearly on matchday two in Europe, when Paris Saint-Germain won 4-2 at the Etihad. Sports Mole described PSG's first 45 minutes in Manchester as among the most thrilling ever witnessed at the club, and the defeat ended a run of eight straight wins. A strong showing against AEK would go some way to easing the pain of that chastening night, and a home crowd that has grown used to European processions will expect a response.
For all the defensive questions, City's attacking depth remains the envy of the continent. Even on nights when the back line wobbles, the sheer volume of chances they create usually tells — and it is why so many previews of this fixture focus less on whether City will score, and more on how many.
The Haaland factor
Haaland's numbers in this competition continue to defy belief. The Norwegian has scored 61 goals in 60 Champions League appearances, a strike rate unmatched in the modern era, and his five goals in three games coming into this fixture have only sharpened the sense that he is the man AEK's game plan must start and end with.
Domagoj Vida and Harold Moukoudi are expected to anchor the AEK defence, and their task is as unenviable as any in European football: track Haaland's runs across the box, compete with him in the air, and somehow avoid leaving space for the creators behind him. Rayan Cherki is chief among those creators. The Frenchman is ahead of 98 percent of attacking midfielders in Europe over the past year for chances created and ranks top for touches, and after being kept back at the weekend he is expected to be let loose here — as chance-creator and chance-taker alike. Cherki has already registered four Premier League goals this season, so AEK cannot afford to treat him as a mere supplier.
Team news and the rotation question
Much of the build-up has centred on how heavily Maresca rotates amid a demanding schedule. Haaland appeared to be struggling after the Ipswich match, though Maresca issued an update to allay supporters' fears and said the Norwegian was fine. Build-up reports nevertheless suggested the striker could be rested, with Phil Foden — available again after serving a domestic suspension — tipped to operate as a makeshift centre-forward, supported by Cherki, Enzo Fernandez and Iliman Ndiaye. Teenage prospect Ayyoub Bouaddi has been tipped to feature alongside Elliot Anderson in midfield after a strong second-half showing against Paris Saint-Germain.
Elsewhere, Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes were both withdrawn against Ipswich with apparent knocks and face late checks, Antoine Semenyo has a troublesome knee issue, and Nico O'Reilly has been struggling with a back problem. One predicted City line-up doing the rounds in the build-up read: Donnarumma; Khusanov, Dias, Guehi, Gvardiol; Bouaddi, Anderson; Cherki, Fernandez, Ndiaye; Foden — a side that, even in rotation, underlines the depth Maresca can call on.
AEK, by contrast, reported no fresh injury concerns beyond Strakosha's wrist problem, allowing Marko Nikolic to name a settled side. Veteran Alberto Brignoli — once of Brentford — is expected to deputise in goal, with Majer and Razvan Marin providing creativity behind the strike pairing of Luka Jovic and Barnabas Varga.
AEK's road to the Etihad
AEK's presence in the league phase is itself a story. The Greek side fought through the play-off round in August, drawing 0-0 away to Levski Sofia before winning the return leg 4-0 in Athens — Varga scoring twice and Marin converting a penalty — to seal their return to Europe's elite competition. Nikolic, drily noting that the play-off second leg was only his side's second competitive match of the season, has repeatedly stressed that the Greek championship remains his priority, while also defending his squad depth: AEK, he has pointed out, possess three top-quality strikers in Jovic, Varga and Zini.
In the league phase itself, AEK opened with a 1-0 home win over LASK Linz before losing 3-1 to Shakhtar Donetsk on matchday two — a game played at Stamford Bridge, where Majer's goal proved only a consolation. Domestically, the picture is mixed: Nikolic's side sit fourth in the Greek Super League, four points behind leaders Panathinaikos, and their recent away form reads one win, three draws and one defeat from five. AEK did not play at the weekend, having requested a postponement, so they at least arrive in Manchester with rested legs.
Form guide and key battles
AEK's attacking threat should not be discounted. Jovic and Varga have scored four Super League goals each this season, and AEK have found the net in both of their Champions League appearances this term. Against a City defence that has conceded six in two, the visitors will believe a goal is there for them — several previews have flagged both teams to score as the value angle, and a 3-1 home win as the likeliest exact scoreline.
History, though, offers the Greeks little comfort. AEK have never won away from home in the Champions League proper, drawing five and losing eleven, and they have lost seven of their last eight Champions League encounters with English clubs. The key battles look lopsided on paper: Vida and Moukoudi against Haaland or Foden; Majer, drifting in from the right, against Josko Gvardiol; and AEK's midfield screen against the rotations of Cherki and Fernandez between the lines. If AEK are to stand any chance, they must survive the first half hour — the period in which City so often overwhelm visitors at the Etihad — and then make their moments in transition count.
What is at stake
Both sides begin the night on three points, and AEK could even leapfrog City in the early league-phase table with a famous win. For City, the maths is simpler: after the PSG defeat, dropped points at home to the group's outsiders would seriously complicate their push for a top-eight finish and direct passage to the round of 16.
For AEK, the road ahead makes this feel close to a free hit — but also underlines why points here would be gold. FotMob's preview estimated the Greeks will need nine or ten points to progress; three are already on the board after the LASK win, but after this game comes a daunting run of Real Madrid, Como, Galatasaray, Roma and Dortmund, and it is hard to see where at least six more points would come from. A draw at the Etihad would transform that picture; a defeat leaves them needing near-perfection elsewhere.
What happens next
Whatever the result, City's European campaign rolls on with the fixture list showing no mercy, and Maresca's rotation decisions on Tuesday will be read as a sign of where his priorities lie between domestic and European fronts. For AEK, attention will quickly return to the title race at home and to that daunting sequence of league-phase fixtures, knowing their margin for error is already thin.
The consensus among the previews is a comfortable home win — predictions of 3-0 and 3-1 were common — but the pattern of City's season suggests entertainment either way. Haaland or no Haaland, as one preview put it, City should have too much; whether AEK can land a blow of their own on a vulnerable back line is the night's most intriguing sub-plot. Kick-off at the Etihad is the next chapter in a season that, for both clubs, still has everything to play for.
Source: Khelnow