Despite Manchester City's spectacular form in the English Premier League this season, Roberto Mancini's men have, thus far, been struggling to stay afloat in the UEFA Champions League. The Citizens were handed a tough group, with the likes of Bayern Munich, Napoli and Villarreal, and thus far have managed to beat only the Yellow Submarine at the Etihad Stadium.
In this match at El Madrigal Mario Balotelli is available to make his first appearance in the competition for the club after missing the first three group stage matches due to suspension. The Italian is likely to be in the first XI for this match after coming off the substitutes bench this weekend. City will need to take all three points from this match if they aim to make the knockout stages of the competition.
Villarreal have yet to gain a single point in the group stages and the La Liga club find themselves 13th in the domestic table as well. The Yellow Submarine will be without a number of first team players including Nilmar, Giuseppe Rossi, Marco Ruben, Marcos Senna, Javier Camunas, Cani and Cristian Zapata. As a result, manager Juan Carlos Garrido will be forced to field a line-up that includes strikers from his B and C sides.
Villarreal vs. Manchester City kicks off at 3:45 pm ET, 7:45 pm GMT, 8:45 pm local. We'll have coverage of all of Wednesday's Champions League action in our UEFA Champions League Wednesday, Matchday 4 StoryStream. For more on the entire world of football, check out SB Nation Soccer.
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