Manchester City and Mönchengladbach meet again

Josep Guardiola's first UEFA Champions League fixture as Manchester City FC manager comes against a familiar foe – VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach. The clubs met in the group stage of last season's competition, City winning home and away.

Previous meetings
• City won 2-1 in Monchengladbach on 30 September last year. After Joe Hart's first-half penalty save from Raffael, Gladbach scored through Lars Stindl but City responded through Martín Demichelis's equaliser and Sergio Agüero's last-minute penalty.

• City fought back once more to consign Gladbach to a fourth-placed finish in the group when beating them 4-2 on 8 December. The visitors had led 2-1 after Julian Korb and Raffael overturned David Silva's goal, but City struck three times in the last ten minutes through Raheem Sterling (twice) and Wilfried Bony to ensure they won the section.

• The line-ups in Manchester were:
City: Hart; Clichy (Sagna 81), Otamendi, Mangala, Kolarov; Delph (Bony 65), Touré, Fernandinho; Sterling, Silva, De Bruyne (Navas 65).
Gladbach: Sommer; Elvedi, Christensen, Nordtveit; Korb, Wendt (Hazard 84); Dahoud (Schulz 66), Xhaka, Johnson (Drnic 72); Stindl, Raffael.

• Eventual winners Mönchengladbach overcame City 4-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals of the 1978/79 UEFA Cup. Ewald Lienen cancelled out Mick Channon's goal in the first leg at Maine Road and Gladbach won the return 3-1 through goals by Christian Kulik, Hans-Günter Bruns and Karl Del'Haye. Kazimierz Deyna scored for City.

Match background

Manchester City
• Fourth in last season's Premier League, City beat FC Steaua Bucureşti 6-0 on aggregate in the play-offs to secure a sixth successive group stage participation.

• City reached the UEFA Champions League semi-finals for the first time last season before falling 1-0 on aggregate against Real Madrid CF.

• Twice a UEFA Champions League-winning coach with FC Barcelona, Guardiola has never failed to reach at least the semi-finals in seven previous seasons coaching in the competition.

• City are unbeaten in six home matches in UEFA competition and have not conceded a goal against continental visitors since hosting Gladbach last December.

• City's overall home record against German visitors is W5 D2 L1. Those five wins include a 3-2 success over a Guardiola-coached FC Bayern München in 2014, in which Agüero hit a hat-trick.

Mönchengladbach
• Gladbach had not played in Europe's elite club competition for 37 years before last season's appearance. André Schubert's men secured an immediate return by finishing fourth in the 2015/16 Bundesliga and then beating BSC Young Boys 9-2 on aggregate in the play-offs.

• They took a solitary point on their travels in the 2015/16 group stage, drawing 0-0 at Juventus in between defeats at Sevilla FC and City.

• The Bundesliga club's away record against English opposition is W1 D2 L3. That solitary victory came on 10 September 1996: a 3-2 success against Arsenal FC in the 1996/97 UEFA Cup first round (6-4 agg), featuring goals from Andrzej Juskowiak, Stefan Effenberg and Stephan Passlack.

• Gladbach lost two finals against Liverpool FC in the 1970s – the 1973 UEFA Cup final (0-3 a, 2-0 h) and the 1977 European Champion Clubs' Cup final (1-3 in Rome).

Coach and player links
• Guardiola's first match in charge of Bayern was a 3-1 home victory against Gladbach in August 2013. However, his Bayern side failed to beat Gladbach in each of the last two campaigns. Last season they lost 3-1 in Monchengladbach – Oscar Wendt, Lars Stindl and Fabian Johnson scoring – and drew 1-1 at home. In 2014/15, Gladbach held Bayern 0-0 at home and won 2-0 in Munich through a Raffael double.

• Playing for Nürnberg and Borussia Dortmund, İlkay Gündoğan won four and lost just one of eight matches against Gladbach. In January this year he scored past Yann Sommer to complete a 3-1 Dortmund victory in Monchengladbach.

• Kevin De Bruyne lost just one of five Bundesliga outings against Gladbach for Werder Bremen and VfL Wolfsburg, which included a goal in a 3-1 Wolfsburg home victory in May 2014.

• With FC Schalke 04, Leroy Sané beat Gladbach 2-1 at home in last season's Bundesliga, but lost 3-1 away.

• Yann Sommer kept a clean sheet for Switzerland against Bacary Sagna's France in a 0-0 UEFA EURO 2016 group stage draw.

• De Bruyne scored in Belgium's 2-1 win against Johnson's United States in the round of 16 at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

• International team-mates:
Gündoğan, Sané &, Christoph Kramer, Patrick Herrmann (Germany)
De Bruyne, Kompany & Thorgan Hazard (Belgium)

Match facts

Manchester City
• Josep Guardiola has started his reign as Manchester City manager with six successive victories.

• City's last defeat in any competition came in the second leg of last term's UEFA Champions League semi-finals, 1-0 against Real Madrid CF.

Sergio Agüero has converted 2/4 penalties©AFP/Getty Images

• City have been awarded four penalties already this season, Sergio Agüero scoring two and missing two.

• Agüero has scored six goals in five games but is serving a three-match domestic suspension having been cited for an incident in the 3-1 defeat of West Ham United FC on 28 August.

• Fernandinho was among the scorers against West Ham – his first league goal in 365 days.

• Summer signing Nolito scored three goals in his first three appearances for City.

• While Claudio Bravo and Leroy Sané made their debuts in the 2-1 win at Manchester United FC on Saturday, İlkay Gündoğan is yet to earn his City bow due to a knee injury.

• Captain Vincent Kompany is yet to play this season because of the groin injury that kept him out of UEFA EURO 2016.

• David Silva scored twice for Spain in both the 2-0 friendly win against Belgium and 8-0 qualifying victory over Liechtenstein. He now has 28 goals for the Roja and is fifth on their all-time list.

Mönchengladbach
• Gladbach had won four out of four in 2016/17 before Saturday's 3-1 loss at SC Freiburg.

André Hahn: goals in five straight league games©Getty Images

• André Hahn had scored in each of Gladbach's last five Bundesliga games before Saturday.

• Marvin Schulz (groin) and Mamadou Doucoure (muscle) are yet to feature this season because of injury.

• Álvaro Domínguez underwent back surgery for a second time earlier this month. The defender, who last played a Bundesliga game in November last year, has been left out of the UEFA Champions League squad.

• Switzerland striker Josip Drmić has been absent since March after suffering a serious knee injury while on loan at Hamburger SV. He, too, is not in Gladbach's group stage squad.

• Gladbach managed just four wins in 17 away matches in the Bundesliga last season and their haul of 15 points on their travels was only the 12th best in the league.

• Raffael is on the verge of his 50th appearance in UEFA club competition.