Sixth meets seventh in Wednesday's Champions League encounter at the Etihad Stadium, where Manchester City play host to German giants Borussia Dortmund.
Both sides have collected a praiseworthy seven points from three matches so far, but BVB sit one place higher in the 36-team league-phase standings by virtue of a marginally superior goal difference.
Match preview
Calmly going about their continental business in the early stages of the 2025-26 season, Pep Guardiola's Man City have already faced three revered European teams in Napoli, Monaco and Villarreal, and a haul of seven points is nothing to be scoffed at.
The Sky Blues took down Napoli and Villarreal 2-0 either side of an enthralling four-goal stalemate with Monaco, but while scoring multiple goals in each game is an applaudable feat, the hosts' six strikes makes them the lowest scorers inside the top 12 of the standings.
Nevertheless, City's seventh-placed ranking would suffice for direct entry to the last 16, and Guardiola's men have been busy righting some domestic wrongs over the past week, securing successive 3-1 triumphs over Swansea City and Bournemouth after an agonising away defeat to Aston Villa.
The electrifying Erling Haaland joined two Liverpool greats in an exclusive goalscoring clubwith his brace against the latter in Sunday's Premier League win, which lifted the Citizens back into the top two of the table, albeit still six points behind leaders Arsenal.
Putting their domestic duties to one side for a minute, Guardiola's troops have an exceptional European record to maintain on Wednesday night - the Citizens have won each of their last 11 competitive home matches against German teams and have never been beaten by Dortmund on their own patch.
Borussia Dortmund's Nico Schlotterbeck on October 25, 2025
Extending that unblemished record will be easier said than done if the form book is anything to go by, though, as Niko Kovac's visitors have been on the goalscoring warpath in this season's Champions League, netting no fewer than four goals in every game so far.
After an absorbing 4-4 draw with Juventus and 4-1 thrashing of Athletic Bilbao, BVB struck another quartet of European goals in the Danish capital, slaying Copenhagen 4-2 thanks partly to a Felix Nmecha brace and two assists from Jobe Bellingham.
The latter result saw Dortmund score four goals in three straight European Cup/Champions League matches for the first time in their history, and their terrific 12 goals is the joint second-most in the league phase so far, level with Klassiker rivals Bayern Munich and one inferior to Paris Saint-Germain's 13.
Interestingly, Kovac's men have been less potent on the domestic front - scoring just one goal in three straight games against Koln, Eintracht Frankfurt and Augsburg - but one strike was all it took to win all three matches; the Frankfurt fixture saw Dortmund win on penalties in the DFB-Pokal after a 1-1 draw.
The 2023-24 Champions League finalists have also found the back of the net in all of their away games so far in 2025-26 and have coincidentally scored on all three trips to the Etihad, but meetings at this venue in 2021 and 2022 both ended in 2-1 losses for the German giants.
Manchester City Champions League form:
Manchester City form (all competitions):
W
W
W
L
W
W
Borussia Dortmund Champions League form:
Borussia Dortmund form (all competitions):
D
L
W
W
W
W
Team News
Manchester City's Mateo Kovacic on October 18, 2025
Haaland and 2024 Ballon d'Or winner Rodri both shook off their concerns to make themselves available for Man City's win over Bournemouth, but Guardiola still did not boast a fully-fit squad owing to the absence of Mateo Kovacic, who has been laid low by an ankle problem.
Guardiola has suggested that the Croatia international will take months to recover from his issue, but he is the only fitness concern for the hosts here, although Bernardo Silva will miss City's next Champions League game if he picks up a yellow card.
Taken off before having the chance to complete his hat-trick on Sunday, Haaland now reunites with the club he scored an astounding 86 goals for in 89 appearances, and the Norwegian was also responsible for the winning goal in City's 2-1 victory over Dortmund in 2022.
Meanwhile, the visitors are poised to receive a double defensive boost for Wednesday's game, as Nico Schlotterbeck (illness) and Niklas Sule (toe) are both expected to shake off their ailments in time to be involved.
As a result, BVB's only absentee should be the young Julien Duranville, who is on the mend from a shoulder injury but would never have started at the Etihad anyway.
A fully-fit Schlotterbeck should demote on-loan Chelsea centre-back Aaron Anselmino to the bench, while Bellingham's pair of assists in Copenhagen may be enough for the ex-Sunderland prospect to force his way back in over the veteran Pascal Gross.
Manchester City possible starting lineup:
Donnarumma; Nunes, Stones, Dias, Ait-Nouri; Gonzalez; Savinho, Reijnders, Foden, Doku; Haaland
Borussia Dortmund possible starting lineup:
Kobel; Schlotterbeck, Anton, Bensebaini; Couto, Nmecha, Bellingham, Svensson; Beier, Brandt; Guirassy
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We say: Manchester City 2-1 Borussia Dortmund
Only the reigning European champions have been more potent than Dortmund in this season's Champions League so far, and Guardiola's backline should not emerge from this contest unscathed.
However, the hosts can always fight fire with fire when Haaland is in such unstoppable form, and we can envisage a third straight 2-1 win for the Sky Blues against their German counterparts.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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