Form guide (all competitions, most recent first)
Barcelona: WLWWDW
Manchester City: DLDWWW
Pep Guardiola returns to the club where he made his name when Manchester City FC visit FC Barcelona on matchday three.
This meeting of the top two in Group C will take several other Barcelona old boys back to their former club – director of football Txiki Begiristain, goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, winger Nolito, and assistant coach Mikel Arteta.
Previous Meetings
The clubs met for the first time in a competitive fixture in the 2013/14 round of 16. Barcelona won 2-0 in England with Lionel Messi (pen) and Dani Alves scoring, and that pair struck again in a 2-1 victory back at the Camp Nou, either side of Vincent Kompany's goal. In both games City had a man sent off – Martín Demichelis, then Pablo Zabaleta.
The line-ups in Barcelona on 12 March 2014 were:
Barcelona: Valdés, Alves, Piqué, Mascherano,
Alba, Xavi, Busquets, Fàbregas (Sergi Roberto 86), Neymar (Alexis Sánchez 80), Messi, Iniesta.
Manchester City: Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Kolarov, Y Touré, Fernandinho, Nasri (Navas 75), Silva (Negredo 72), Milner, Agüero (Džeko 46).
Barcelona prevailed again at the same stage in 2014/15. In Manchester, Luis Suárez scored twice in a 2-1 win in which Sergio Agüero also found the net, Gaël Clichy was sent off, and Messi had a last-minute penalty saved by Joe Hart. Back in Barcelona, Ivan Rakitic got the only goal and Marc-André ter Stegen saved an Agüero spot kick.
The line-ups at the Camp Nou on 18 March 2015 were:
Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Alves (Adriano 90+1), Piqué, Mathieu, Alba, Rakitic (Rafinha 84), Mascherano, Iniesta, Messi, Suárez, Neymar.
Man. City: Hart, Sagna, Kompany, Demichelis, Kolarov, Nasri (Navas 46), Y Touré (Bony 72), Fernandinho, Milner (Lampard 87), Silva, Agüero.
Zabaleta is City's only survivor from the 1-0 friendly win at Barcelona in August 2009.
Match background
Barcelona
Barcelona are seeking a third Group C victory after beating Celtic FC 7-0 and VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-1.
The Celtic result made it 12 home Uefa Champions League wins in a row. Overall Barcelona are unbeaten in 17 matches at home in the competition since September 2013 (W16, D1).
Barcelona's last encounter with Premier League opposition came against Arsenal FC in last season's round of 16:2-0 (a), 3-1 (h).
Their overall home record against English clubs is W18 D11 L2.
Manchester City
City followed up an opening 4-0 win over Mönchengladbach by drawing 3-3 at Celtic on matchday two.
The Premier League club had mixed fortunes in Spain last season. They won 3-1 at Sevilla FC in the group stage – with Raheem Sterling and Fernandinho among the scorers – but lost 1-0 at Real Madrid CF in the semifinals.
City's overall away record against Spanish sides is W2 D1 L6.
Match Facts
Barcelona
Luis Suárez provided two assists in Uruguay's 3-0 win over Venezuela and scored in the 2-2 draw with Colombia to join Hernán Crespo on 18 goals as the joint all-time top scorer in CONMEBOL Fifa World Cup qualifiers.
Neymar scored the opening goal and provided two assists in Brazil's 5-0 defeat of Bolivia.
Lionel Messi returned to full training on Thursday after injuring his groin in the 1-1 draw with Atlético Madrid on 21 September. He came off the bench – and scored – in Saturday's 4-0 defeat of RC Deportivo La Coruña.
Samuel Umtiti is back in training after recovering from an ankle injury sustained in training on 20 September. He was an unused substitute against Deportivo.
Rakitic (heel), Sergi Roberto (adductor), Jordi Alba (hamstring) and Jasper Cillessen (ankle) have been struggling with injuries. Rakitic played against Deportivo.
Barcelona's 13 points after their first seven games represented their worst start to a Liga campaign since 2005/06 – when they went on to win a Liga and Uefa Champions League double.
Gerard Piqué has scored three goals in Barça's last three games.
Manchester City
Guardiola's ten-match winning run to the start of his reign as City manager was ended by the draw at Celtic on matchday two.
City were then beaten 2-0 at Tottenham Hotspur FC on 2 October – their first defeat in any competition since the second leg of the 2015/16 Uefa Champions League semifinals, 1-0 against Real Madrid CF.
Guardiola's men drew 1-1 at home to Everton FC on Saturday, De Bruyne and Agüero both missing penalties. City have failed to convert half their eight spot kicks this season.
Ilkay Gündogan scored on his Premier League debut as City triumphed 4-0 against AFC Bournemouth on 17 September.
Making his first appearance for club or country since 4 May, Kompany sustained a groin injury late on in the cup tie against Swansea City AFC on 21 September. He came on as a substitute against Everton.
Agüero also missed a penalty as Argentina lost 1-0 in Paraguay on 12 October; substitute Nolito scored within five minutes of coming on as Spain beat Albania 2-0 while Kelechi Iheanacho got the winner in Nigeria's 2-1 victory away to Zambia.
Bacary Sagna picked up a hamstring injury while in training with France on 10 October and is expected to be out for three weeks.
Sterling (calf) and Kevin De Bruyne (hamstring) have both had injury problems but started against Everton.
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