Manchester City supporters want to see some of the club's exciting youth prospects given a chance against Sporting.
City are all-but guaranteed a spot in the quarter-finals of the Champions League after they hammered their opponents 5-0 in the opening leg of the last 16 tie in Lisbon three weeks ago. With such an advantage it's likely that most of the scorers from that game will get the evening off — and fans hope that Pep Guardiola will give some starlets a chance on the big stage.
The Blues boss may well be forced into doing so as he only has 14 senior players available for the game and one of them — Kevin De Bruyne — is just a booking away from suspension, so is unlikely to be involved. Guardiola is especially low on options in defence, with Kyle Walker suspended and Joao Cancelo, Ruben Dias, and Nathan Ake all unavailable.
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With only three senior defenders at his disposal, Guardiola will likely be forced to dip into the reserves and many have predicted that Luke Mbete could come in at centre-back with John Stones filling in on the right. However, fans have instead said they want natural full-back and youth team captain CJ Egan-Riley to come in at right-back with Stones staying alongside Aymeric Laporte in the middle.
As well as De Bruyne being kept out of action, Bernardo Silva and Rodri will also likely be rested and supporters want to see Fernandinho, Ilkay Gundogan and James McAtee come into the middle of the park. The teenage playmaker has impressed when given a chance this season and fans clearly want to see him in action.
The third and final youngster they want to see in action is Liam Delap. The promising striker has seen his season disrupted by injuries but is now fit again and this match could be the perfect opportunity for him to show Guardiola what he can do ahead of a likely striker search in the summer. Supporters have named Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling as the forwards they want to flank Delap.
Starting XI fans want to see vs Sporting: Ederson; Egan-Riley, Stones, Laporte, Zinchenko; McAtee, Fernandinho, Gundogan; Jesus, Delap, Sterling.
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