Manchester City v Atalanta facts

Manchester City have made serene progress through Group C so far and now face for the first time an Atalanta side who have lost their first two matches in the UEFA Champions League.

• While the English champions have scored five goals without conceding in beating Shakhtar Donetsk and Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta kicked off their debut campaign in the competition with a heavy defeat in Croatia before being denied a first point in dramatic circumstances on Matchday 2.

Form guide
Manchester City
• This season, City have won 3-0 at Shakhtar and 2-0 at home to Dinamo to take their tally of goals scored to 19 in their last six UEFA Champions League matches. Since losing at home to Lyon on Matchday 1 last season (1-2) their record is W9 D1 L1 with 34 goals scored and ten conceded.

• In 2018/19, City recovered from that defeat at home to Lyon to finish first in Group F ahead of the French club, Shakhtar and Hoffenheim, picking up 13 points. They brushed aside Schalke 10-2 on aggregate in the last 16, but for the second year running lost to English opposition in the quarter-finals, Tottenham eliminating them on away goals after a dramatic 4-4 aggregate draw (0-1 a, 4-3 h).

• Josep Guardiola's side have won ten of their last 17 European matches, home and away – losing six.

• City beat Shakhtar 6-0 at home on Matchday 4 last season, their record win in UEFA competition, before quickly surpassing that with a 7-0 defeat of Schalke in the round of 16 second leg. They scored 20 goals in their five home games in 2018/19.

• This is the Citizens' ninth UEFA Champions League campaign; they have been involved in the group stage every season since 2011/12 and have reached the round of 16 or better in the last six campaigns.

• This is the fifth time City have been drawn in the same UEFA Champions League group as an Italian club; most recently, in 2017/18, they beat Napoli home (2-1) and away (4-2). That win at the City of Manchester Stadium was City's first in five home games against Serie A sides (D3 L1); a 2-1 defeat against Juventus in September 2015 is their sole home reverse against Italian visitors.

• Those 2017 wins against Napoli made it three City successes in their last ten meetings with Italian clubs, home and away (D4 L3).

• City's best UEFA Champions League performance was reaching the 2015/16 semi-finals.

• Champions of England for the second season running and sixth overall – four of those titles having come in the last eight years – City also lifted the FA Cup and League Cup in 2018/19, becoming the first English club to win all three domestic trophies in one season.

Atalanta
• Atalanta suffered their heaviest defeat in UEFA competition on Matchday 1, going down 4-0 at Dinamo Zagreb, before letting slip a 1-0 lead against Shakhtar at San Siro in Milan, conceding five minutes into added time to lose 2-1.

• Those results made it four European matches without a win for Atalanta (D2); Duván Zapata's strike against Shakhtar ended the club's three-game run without a goal.

• Before Matchday 1, the Italian club were unbeaten in seven matches in continental competition; they have still lost only three of their last 16 European games (W7 D6).

• This is Atalanta's 38th European match, and their seventh campaign in continental competition. They reached the European Cup Winners' Cup semi-finals in 1987/88 and the UEFA Cup quarter-finals three years later.

• Third in Serie A in 2018/19, their highest ever finish, and Coppa Italia runners-up, this is Atalanta's third successive European campaign. They came through the UEFA Europa League group stage in 2017/18, losing to Borussia Dortmund in the round of 32 (2-3 a, 1-1 h), and were beaten 4-3 on penalties by Copenhagen in the play-offs of the same competition in 2018/19 after the tie had finished goalless; Atalanta had earlier eliminated Sarajevo (10-2 aggregate) and Hapoel Haifa (6-1).

• In that 2017/18 campaign, Atalanta played their only previous fixtures against an English club, beating Everton 3-0 at home and 5-1 away. Andrea Masiello and Alejandro Gómez scored in the home game in Reggio Emilia and Robin Gosens was on target in the success on Merseyside.

• Atalanta lost five of their first six away European matches (D1) but have suffered only three defeats in the next 12 (W4 D5) and only two in the last eight (W3 D3).

• Atalanta are the only team to be making their group stage debut in 2019/20 – they are the tenth Italian club to feature and the 141st overall.

Links and trivia
• Guardiola played in Italy for Atalanta's arch rivals Brescia (2001/02, 2003) and Roma (2002/03).

• Have played in England:
Marten de Roon (Middlesbrough 2016–17)
Pierluigi Gollini (Manchester United 2012–14, Aston Villa 2016/17)

• De Roon scored an added-time equaliser in Middlesbrough's 1-1 Premier League draw at City on 5 November 2016.

• Mario Pašalić is on loan at Atalanta from Chelsea. He joined the London club in July 2014 but has never featured for the first team.

• Has played in Italy:
João Cancelo (Internazionale 2017/18 (loan), Juventus 2018/19)

• International team-mates:
Kevin De Bruyne & Timothy Castagne (Belgium)
Nicolás Otamendi, Sergio Agüero & Alejandro Gómez (Argentina)
Oleksandr Zinchenko & Ruslan Malinovskyi (Ukraine)

• Atalanta had a pre-season tour to England this summer, playing friendlies against Premier League clubs Norwich (4-1) and Leicester (1-2).

Latest News

Manchester City
• Sergio Agüero's next appearance in UEFA club competition will be his 100th; Bernardo Silva is on 49 European matches.

• Nicolás Otamendi made his 50th appearance in the UEFA Champions League, group stage to final, on Matchday 2.

• City's five-match winning streak in all competitions, which had featured 19 goals scored and only one conceded, was ended by a 2-0 defeat at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on 6 October. It was their first home defeat without scoring since March 2016, and ended a run of scoring in 29 successive Premier League games.

• That was only City's second defeat in their last 21 matches in all competitions (W17 D2); they also went down 3-2 at Norwich on 14 September. Josep Guardiola's side won 2-0 at Crystal Palace on Saturday evening.

• Kevin De Bruyne has provided eight assists in this season's Premier League.

• City were 8-0 winners at home to Watford in the Premier League on 21 September, their biggest win in the English top flight. They led 5-0 after 18 minutes, the fastest any side has established that scoreline in a Premier League match.

• Agüero found the net in City's first six league games of the season, eight goals in all, but has not scored in the last three; he was an unused substitute on Saturday.

• Josep Guardiola's side have scored 38 goals in their 13 matches this season, and 29 in their nine league matches.

• Raheem Sterling has scored nine goals in 12 club games this season, and 13 goals and seven assists in 16 games for City and England in 2019/20.

• Sterling has four goals in four appearances for England, including two in the 6-0 UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying victory in Bulgaria on 14 October. He also provided an assist in Sofia, having won a penalty in the 2-1 defeat away to the Czech Republic three days earlier.

• İlkay Gündoğan scored twice as Germany won 3-0 in Estonia in EURO qualifying on 13 October.

• On 11 October Bernardo Silva scored his fifth international goal as Portugal beat Luxembourg 3-0 in EURO qualifying.

• Oleksandr Zinchenko played against Lithuania (2-0) and Portugal (2-1) as Ukraine confirmed their place at UEFA EURO 2020.

• Aymeric Laporte damaged the cartilage and lateral meniscus in his right knee during a 4-0 home win against Brighton on 31 August and is expected to be sidelined for around six months.

• Leroy Sané is also facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury to his right knee during the FA Community Shield against Liverpool on 4 August.

• De Bruyne picked up a hamstring problem in the 3-1 win at Everton on 28 September, returning on Saturday; Kyle Walker was withdrawn at half-time in the loss against Wolves suffering from a stomach complaint and did not feature at the weekend.

• Benjamin Mendy made his first appearance since 17 April on Matchday 1 having recovered from a knee injury, but picked up a muscle problem against Preston on 24 September and subsequently damaged a thigh muscle; he returned to play 90 minutes on Saturday.

• John Stones' first appearance of the season came in the defeat at Norwich on 17 September; he suffered a thigh injury in training on the eve of the game at Shakhtar and did not feature for a second time until coming on as a late substitute at Palace.

• City won the Community Shield for the sixth time overall – and second year in a row – with a 5-4 shoot-out defeat of Liverpool at Wembley, Sterling scoring City's goal in a 1-1 draw.

Atalanta
• Atalanta won their first four away games in Serie A this season and looked set to make it five on Saturday only to let slip a three-goal half-time lead to draw 3-3 at Lazio, all the home side's goals coming in the final quarter of the match and the equaliser in added time.

• Luis Muriel scored twice at Lazio, taking his Serie A tally to five goals; all have come away from home.

• A 2-0 victory at Roma on 25 September is Atalanta's only clean sheet in their ten games this season, and their only one in their last 15 matches in all competitions.

• Atalanta went third in Serie A with a 3-1 home win against Lecce on 6 October.

• The Bergamo side have the best attack in Serie A with 21 goals in eight games.

• Robin Gosens scored his third goal of the season against Lecce, already equalling his record for a top-flight season after just seven games.

• Atalanta have scored two or more goals in each of their first eight Serie A games.

• Duván Zapata, who has scored six goals in seven Serie A games, has found the net in his last three games in all competitions, but suffered a thigh injury while on international duty with Colombia and missed Saturday's game.

• On 11 October Timothy Castagne scored as Belgium beat San Marino 9-0 to qualify for UEFA EURO 2020.

• A late Josip Iličić penalty was not enough to prevent Slovenia losing 2-1 away to North Macedonia in EURO qualifying on 10 October.

• Ruslan Malinovskyi scored both Ukraine goals in the 2-0 win against Lithuania on 11 October; three days later, he also played 90 minutes as Portugal were beaten 2-1 to book Ukraine's place at UEFA EURO 2020.

• Atalanta signed Martin Škrtel on 9 August, but his contract was cancelled by mutual consent three weeks later.

• On 9 September Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini was made an honorary citizen of Bergamo.

FootballPeople weeks
The FootballPeople weeks take place from 10 to 24 October 2019 and are organised by UEFA's social responsibility partner Fare. The weeks are a global campaign aimed at tackling discrimination and celebrating diversity in football. The UEFA Champions League is offering its full support to the FootballPeople weeks; teams will line up for a mixed photo with the referees, while an #EqualGame hashtag will also be on display. Videos will be played on giant screens at stadiums across Europe, and child mascots will be wearing #FootballPeople t-shirts. UEFA's collaboration with the Fare network's FootballPeople weeks has been running since 2001. The aim of this initiative fits in perfectly with the goals of #EqualGame, which is looking to promote inclusion, diversity and accessibility.