Porto and Manchester City badges on a backdrop of the Estadio Do Dragao
Porto v Manchester City: Champions League preview
It’s not exactly been all plain sailing for Manchester City in their opening three Premier League games but you can’t argue with the results: win, win, win.
Despite some iffy moments against Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Coventry, the maximum haul of nine points represents an ideal start for new boss Enzo Maresca. Life goes on after Pep Guardiola – for now at least.
Porto, who went unbeaten at home when winning their Portuguese domestic league last season, have won their opening five games of the new campaign, scoring 11 goals and conceding just once. This is their first Champions League involvement since 2023/24.
Porto v Man City kick-off time
Porto v Man City kicks off at 8pm BST on Tuesday, September 8 at the Estadio Do Dragao.
Porto v Man City how to watch
The game will be shown live in the UK via Amazon Prime, with coverage starting from 7pm.
TalkSPORT will provide full match commentary.
Porto team news
Porto will be without former Southampton defender Jan Bednarek after the Pole picked up a red card in his most recent European outing – the Europa League quarter-final second-leg defeat against Nottingham Forest. Nehuen Perez should come in.
Danish midfielder Victor Froholdt will miss out after he was caught in the head by a loose elbow and knocked unconscious during the league game against Moreirense. Thankfully, he’s on the mend after the concussion.
Also absent are Vasco Sousa, Gabriel Mec, Oskar Pietuszewski, Zaidu Sanusi and Samu Aghehowa.
Man City team news
Starting XIs were always difficult to assess during the ‘Pep roulette’ era and it will be interesting to see how much Maresca rotates – especially with the derby clash against Manchester United coming up on Sunday.
His hand is forced in some areas. Jeremy Doku is still out injured, while Nico O’Reilly is a doubt after his last-minute withdrawal ahead of the Coventry game due to a back issue.
That allowed record signing Enzo Fernandez to make his debut and Iliman Ndiaye also got his first action following the deadline day move from Everton.
Another summer acquisition, Ayyoub Bouaddi, came on as a late sub against Coventry and may be in line for a start.
Porto v Man City odds
Man City are odds-on at 8/11 to start the eight-game Champions League phase with a win.
Porto are 10/3 while The Draw is 3/1.
In the outright betting, City are 9/1 sixth favourites to lift the trophy behind 5/1 PSG, 6/1 Barcelona, Arsenal, Bayern and 13/2 Real Madrid.
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Porto v Man City prediction
City have faced Porto four times in European competition, winning three and drawing the other.
That should become four wins out of five on Tuesday night given their vast array of attacking options which includes an in-form Erling Haaland.
Haaland to score anytime in a Man City win pays 17/10 and is an obvious first bet.
Don’t rule out a Porto goal though. City conceded against both Bournemouth and Crystal Palace and were fortunate to keep a clean sheet against Coventry.
Man City to win and Both Teams to Score is 23/10 and if we throw a Haaland goal into that, the Bet Builder comes out at 7/2.
If looking for a pro-Porto bet, Gabri Veiga has netted three times in those first five Portuguese Liga games.
That makes him a value bet at 5/1 to score anytime.