Man City vs Crvena zvezda match facts

Manchester City kick off their defence of the UEFA Champions League with a home game against Crvena zvezda, who are making their third group appearance, all in the last six seasons.

The English club are in the Champions League for the 13th season in a row and finally claimed their first title in 2022/23, edging out Inter Milan 1-0 in Istanbul to complete a first treble. Crvena zvezda, meanwhile, qualified automatically as Serbian champions and will be aiming to improve on their previous two group appearances, when they finished fourth in their section.

This is the sides' first meeting – indeed, neither Matchday 1 game in Group G, which also includes Young Boys and Leipzig, has been played before.

Form guide

Manchester City

This is City's first game against a Serbian team.

This is City's 13th successive Champions League group appearance; they have featured every season since 2011/12 and have reached the knockout stages in each of the last ten campaigns.

City won the Champions League for the first time in 2022/23, beating Inter 1-0 in the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul thanks to a second-half goal from Rodri. Pep Guardiola's team had finished top of Group G before knockout wins against Leipzig (1-1 a, 7-0 h), Bayern München (3-0 h, 1-1 a) and holders Real Madrid (1-1 a, 4-0 h).

Guardiola's side have now finished first in their UEFA Champions League group for six successive seasons.

The final victory brought Guardiola level with Zinédine Zidane and Bob Paisley with three European Cup wins as a coach in total. Only Ancelotti has more with four.

Guardiola, a winner with Barcelona in 2009 and 2011, also became the sixth coach to win the European Cup with two different clubs.

Erling Haaland was the top scorer in the competition with 12 goals including five in the round of 16 second leg against Leipzig. Midfielder Rodri was selected as Player of the Season.

The Cityzens also won the Premier League and the FA Cup in 2022/23, making them England's first treble winners since Manchester United in 1998/99. They became the tenth European team to win the treble and the first since Bayern in 2020.

City have already claimed European silverware this season, beating Sevilla 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Piraeus on 16 August to win the UEFA Super Cup for the first time. The Premier League side were the 25th team to lift the trophy and the sixth from England, Guardiola becoming the first coach to win it with three different clubs.

The Manchester club scored 14 goals without conceding at home in last season's knockout rounds and are unbeaten in 26 home European matches (W24 D2) since a 2-1 loss to Lyon on Matchday 1 in 2018/19, winning 18 of the last 19 with the exception a 0-0 draw against Sporting CP in the 2021/22 round of 16 second leg.

That 26-match run without a home defeat is an English club record in the Champions League, overtaking Arsenal's 24-game sequence from September 2004 to April 2009.

Crvena zvezda

Record vs English clubs: W7 D6 L9 F20 A33
Away record vs English clubs: W1 D4 L6

Crvena zvezda lost away (0-5) and home (0-4) to Tottenham in the 2019/20 Champions League group stage.

That defeat in north London made it nine goals conceded in their last two trips to England and stretched their winless run away to English clubs to seven matches (D4 L3), since a 2-1 win at Liverpool in the 1973/74 European Cup second round second leg that completed a 4-2 aggregate success.

Liverpool were also Crvena zvezda's victims in one of the Serbian club's two Champions League group wins, a 2-0 victory in Belgrade on Matchday 4 in 2018/19.

That is the Serbian club's only victory in their last seven matches against Premier League sides, home and away (D1 L5).

Crvena zvezda are making their third appearance in the Champions League group stage; they previously featured in 2018/19 and 2019/20.

Having come through qualifying in both those campaigns, this is the first time the Belgrade club have gained automatic entry to the group stage.

European Cup winners in 1991, Crvena zvezda have suffered three qualifying eliminations since the most recent of those group appearances, losing in the third qualifying round in both 2020/21 and 2021/22 before being knocked out by Maccabi Haifa in last season's play-offs (2-3 a, 2-2 h).

Miloš Milojević's side subsequently finished bottom of UEFA Europa League Group H despite home wins against both Ferencváros (4-1) and Trabzonspor (2-1), their only points in a section that also included Monaco.

Crvena zvezda lost all three away games in last season's Europa League group stage, making it four away European defeats in a row; a 2-0 win at Pyunik in last season's Champions League third qualifying round second leg is their only victory in their last eight away European fixtures (D2 L5).

The club won a 34th league title, and a sixth in succession, in 2022/23, finishing 22 points ahead of runners-up TSC Bačka Topola. They also won the Serbian Cup for the third year in a row, defeating Čukarički 2-1 in the final.

Milojević departed at the end of the season, Maccabi Haifa coach Barak Bakhar joining as his replacement on 1 June.

Links and trivia

Crvena zvezda captain Aleksandar Dragović spent 2017/18 on loan at Leicester in England. His side lost 4-3 on penalties at home to City after a 1-1 draw in the English League Cup quarter-finals, while he played 90 minutes of a 5-1 Premier League loss at the City of Manchester Stadium.

Dragović scored an 88th-minute winner past City's reserve goalkeeper Stefan Ortega Moreno in Bayer Leverkusen's 2-1 Bundesliga victory at Arminia Bielefeld on 21 November 2020.

Haaland scored twice in Dortmund's 3-1 win against Dragović's Leverkusen on 22 May 2021; it was the latter's last appearance for the German club.

Marko Stamenić was in the Copenhagen side beaten 5-0 at City on Matchday 3 of last season's Champions League; he played 89 minutes of the subsequent goalless draw in the Danish capital.

Latest news

Manchester City

Summer signings
In: Mateo Kovačić (Chelsea), Joško Gvardiol (Leipzig), Jérémy Doku (Rennes), Matheus Nunes (Wolves)
Out: İlkay Gündoğan (Barcelona), Benjamin Mendy (Lorient), Riyad Mahrez (Al-Ahli), Liam Delap (Hull, loan), Josh Wilson-Esbrand (Reims, loan), Máximo Perrone (Las Palmas, loan), Aymeric Laporte (Al-Nassr), Luke Mbete (Den Bosch, loan), Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Southampton, loan), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Tommy Doyle (Wolves, loan), James McAtee (Sheffield United, loan), João Cancelo (Barcelona, loan), Slobodan Tedić (Charlton, loan), Yangel Herrera (Girona), Issa Kaboré (Luton, loan)

City have won all five league games this season, the only team in the Premier League still to drop a point. On Saturday they came from behind to win 3-1 at West Ham.

City have started a league campaign with five consecutive victories for the fifth time. The previous examples were in 1897/98, 1912/13, 2015/16 and 2016/17; their highest finish in any of those campaigns was third.

Jérémy Doku scored his first City goal at the weekend while Bernardo Silva got his first in the Premier League since 4 March.

Erling Haaland, who set a new Premier League record of 36 goals in 2022/23, already has seven to his name this season – three more than any other player – including a second-half hat-trick in the 5-1 home win against Fulham on 2 September and the final goal on Saturday.

Having also scored in Norway's 2-1 UEFA EURO 2024 qualifying win against Georgia on 12 September, Haaland has found the net in his last four games for club and country – six goals in all.

City kicked off the season by losing 4-1 on penalties to Arsenal after a 1-1 draw in the FA Community Shield at Wembley on 6 August. It was their 15th appearance in the match and their ninth defeat – and a third in a row.

Phil Foden opened the scoring in England's 3-1 friendly win in Scotland on 12 September.

Three days earlier, Kyle Walker had marked his 77th international appearance with his first England goal, scoring the equaliser in a 1-1 EURO 2024 qualifying draw away to Ukraine.

Kevin De Bruyne has not played since suffering a recurrence of a hamstring injury in a 2-0 win at Burnley in City's first Premier League game of the season on 11 August, and is expected to be sidelined for several months.

Jack Grealish missed England's September internationals due to a thigh injury and was also absent for City on Saturday.

John Stones has not played since the Community Shield due to a thigh problem.

Kovačić suffered a lower back injury against Fulham and has not played since.

On 31 August Haaland was named the UEFA Men's Player of the Year at the Champions League group stage draw in Monaco. Pep Guardiola took the coach's award.

Seven City players are on the 30-player shortlist for the 2023 Ballon d'Or, which will be announced in Paris on 30 October: Julián Álvarez, De Bruyne, Rúben Dias, Joško Gvardiol, Haaland, Rodri and Bernardo Silva.

Crvena zvezda

Summer transfers
In: Omri Glazer (Hapoel Beer-Sheva), Edmund Addo (Spartak Subotica), Shedrack Charles (IMT), Jean-Philippe Krasso (Saint-Étienne), Peter Olayinka (Slavia Praha), Marko Stamenic (Copenhagen), Uroš Kabić (Vojvodina), Miloš Degenek (Columbus Crew), Andrej Djurić (Domžale), Nasser Djiga (Basel, loan), Cherif Ndiaye (Adana Demirspor), In-beom Hwang (Olympiacos)
Out: Aleksandar Pešić (Ferencváros), Radovan Pankov (Legia Warszawa), Milan Borjan (Slovan Bratislava), Sékou Sanogo (released), Nenad Krstičić (released), Strahinja Eraković (Zenit), Egor Prutsev (Celje, loan), Ilija Babić (Spartak Subotica), Irakli Azarov (Shakhtar), Slavoljub Srnić (AEL Limassol), Andrej Djurić (Spartak Trnava, loan), Marko Gobeljic (AE Kifisias), Stefan Leković (Villarreal, loan), Andrija Radulović (Vojvodina, loan)

Crvena zvezda have won five of their seven games this season, although they lost on Saturday, going down 2-1 at Čukarički.

That was their second defeat of the season, the other a 3-2 loss at Voždovac on 26 August that ended the Belgrade club's 65-match unbeaten run in the Serbian Super League (W56 D9). Their previous loss was a 2-1 reverse at Radnik Surdulica on 27 October 2021.

Crvena zvezda's two league defeats in seven games in 2023/24 is as many as in their previous 120 matches.

Crvena zvezda had scored at least twice in every match this season before only managing one goal on Saturday. They have hit 21 goals in total, conceding seven.

Jean-Philippe Krasso, who converted a penalty against Čukarički at the weekend, is the club's top scorer this season on six goals, three more than Osman Bukari.

Aleksandar Katai made his first appearance this season on Saturday having recovered from a back injury.