Pep Guardiola will begin holding his breath on Thursday night as this week's international fixtures get under way. For most games, Manchester City will be simply hoping that their players return with no injuries - but they may have a selfish reason for hoping three of their players experience defeat in the coming days.
England don't play until the weekend, while they and other countries have helped City out by not selecting the likes of Kyle Walker, Gabriel Jesus or Kevin De Bruyne. A number of players are still in action, though, with the USA, Algeria and Portugal still to secure a World Cup 2022 spot. Ukraine and Aleks Zinchenko can also still qualify, but are understandably not in action this week.
Portgual have perhaps the hardest path to qualification, beginning on Thursday night, as they host Turkey in the UEFA play-offs for one of the final places at Qatar.
