Manchester City can equal a Champions League record when they take on Sevilla on Wednesday evening, and Manchester United won't be too happy about it.
City welcome the Spanish side to the Etihad Stadium for their final match of the group stage, in what is essentially a dead rubber. Pep Guardiola's side secured their place in the last 16 after just four games, before they guaranteed top spot in the group with a goalless draw against Borussia Dortmund last week.
Sevilla, meanwhile, are guaranteed to finish in third place and drop into the Europa League, meaning neither side has anything riding on the fixture.
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With two league fixtures to fulfill before the season pauses for the World Cup in a couple of weeks, Guardiola will use the Sevilla game to rest key players and offer minutes to those who haven't played so much of late. That means the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Ederson and Joao Cancelo could well drop out and players like Sergio Gomez and Stefan Ortega could come in.
The match being a 'free hit' has conveniently coincided with Erling Haaland's injury. The striker missed City's win at Leicester on Saturday with a foot complaint, but after a midweek off he could be in contention to feature against Fulham in City's next league outing.
However, there is something riding on the game, although it is unlikely to be too high up on Guardiola's list of priorities. Should City avoid defeat against Sevilla then they will extend their unbeaten home run in the Champions League to 23 games, equaling the English record set by arch-rivals United between 2005 and 2009.
City began the impressive run with a 6-0 thrashing of Shakhtar Donetsk in November 2018, and the 5-0 defeat of FC Copenhagen last month extended the unbeaten run to 22 matches. Should the Blues avoid defeat on Wednesday then they will have the chance to set a new record for an English club in the second leg of their round of 16 tie in March.
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