Enzo Maresca has already set the tone for Manchester City's Champions League opener against FC Porto. He said Ayyoub Bouaddi, Ryan McAidoo and Iliman Ndiaye need to start to get Champions League minutes, and the predicted XI has those names behind Erling Haaland in the team. This is as much about selection as the match itself.

Maresca's rotation plan

Maresca has promised to rotate as Manchester City face Porto in their opening Champions League match. Speaking to standard.co.uk, he said: "We saw today with Ayyoub [Bouaddi], [Ryan] McAidoo, Iliman Ndiaye, they haven’t played in Champions League but they need to start, so on Tuesday they are going to start to get minutes in the Champions League."

That lines up with the predicted XI, which listed Bouaddi, Anderson, Ndiaye, Enzo Fernandez and McAidoo behind Erling Haaland. The message is clear enough: this is a night for minutes, not a fixed XI.

City are also coming in on decent domestic form. They have won four of their last five competitive matches, including a 4-1 away win at Crystal Palace on 2026-08-28 and a 2-1 home win over Bournemouth. Rotation makes more sense when the results are already banked.

The Porto trip and the Haaland subplot

Erling Haaland still carries the usual storyline. He has 34 Champions League goals, two short of Sergio Agüero's 36.

Even so, Maresca's plan pushes the record chase into the background for a night. The bigger call is how many of the newer or less-used players get a run, especially with Iliman Ndiaye still waiting for a Premier League appearance this season and Gianluigi Donnarumma not part of the published selection picture here.

There is also the injury context. Nico O’Reilly dropped out of the starting lineup after a lower back issue in warm-ups, while Ndiaye came off with an apparent knock and is listed as a doubt. He has also been pictured in training, so the suggestion is caution rather than a hard ruling either way. The travelling squad also includes Matheus Nunes, which gives City a bit more depth if Maresca wants to keep changes flowing.

The opening night at Porto looks less like a routine European away trip and more like a managed workload. If City leave with their senior players fresh and the newer faces given minutes, Maresca will have got exactly what he said he wanted on Tuesday.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →