Haaland starts for Man City in Borussia Dortmund reunion

Erling Haaland was handed a start against his former club in Manchester City’s Champions League clash with Borussia Dortmund.

Haaland scored twice in City’s 4-0 rout of Sevilla last time out and Pep Guardiola had no issue starting the striker against his old side on Tuesday.

The 22-year-old has scored 25 goals in 20 Champions League appearances, the most by any player in their first 20 games in the competition. He netted 15 in 13 games with Dortmund and could become just the second player to score a Champions League goal both for and against the German side, after Ciro Immobile.

Haaland is the first City player to score on both his Premier League and Champions League debuts for the club, and was one of three former Dortmund players named in Guardiola’s XI at the Etihad Stadium.

Tonight’s team news

XI | Ederson, Stones, Akanji, Ake, Cancelo, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Gundogan (C), Mahrez, Haaland, Grealish

SUBS | Ortega Moreno, Carson, Dias, Phillips, Alvarez, Bernardo, Gomez, Foden, Palmer, Lewis, Wilson-Esbrand pic.twitter.com/xGzWTUdciJ

— Manchester City (@ManCity) September 14, 2022

Captain Ilkay Gundogan started in midfield alongside Kevin De Bruyne and Rodri, with Manuel Akanji – who greeted his former team-mates on the pitch before kick-off – in defence, with John Stones, Nathan Ake and Joao Cancelo making up the rest of the back four ahead of goalkeeper Ederson. Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish flanked Haaland.

Another former Dortmund player, Sergio Gomez, was named among the City substitutes.

While Guardiola made four changes to the team that started against Sevilla, Dortmund boss Edin Terzic made three alterations to his team from the one that featured in the win over FC Copenhagen last week.

Emre Can, Mats Hummels and Giovani Reyna replaced Julian Brandt, Thorgen Hazard and Nico Schlotterbeck.