Manchester City go into tonights Europa League game with the possibility of making it through to the knockout stage, assuming top of the group Lech Poznan can beat Juventus. But it won't be so easy for City as they face Salzburg with the Austrians knowing that anything less than a win will see them eliminated from the competition.
City go into the game unbeaten in five matches, two of which were wins against Fulham and West Brom, the three draws included two goalless games against Birmingham and in the Manchester derby. The latest result in the sequence was Saturday's 1-1 tie away at Stoke. The Sky Blues last defeat was at the start of November in the Europa League, going down humiliatingly by 3 goals to 1 against Lech in Poland. That was City's only loss in what has been an otherwise successful European campaign, the only other game they had failed to win was against Italian heavyweights Juventus, a match which ended in a 1-1 draw.
The Austrian club, rebranded as Red Bull Salzburg in 2005, have won their last three games in the Austrian Bundesliga, moving them up to third in the process, but have been without luck in Europa League group A thus far, claiming only two points from draws with Juventus, losing their other two matches to Lech and Manchester City. Their European adventure started with a 5-0 victory over Faroese minnows HB Torshavn in Champions League qualifying, though there was a shock in the second leg as a weakened side lost 1-0 to HB thanks to a goal from Simun Samuelsen. They passed through the next round, beating Omonia Nicosia 5-2 on aggregate before a 3-2 home loss to Hapoel Tel-Aviv and a draw in Israel relegated them to the Europa League group stages.
Roberto Mancini is in the middle of a run of three games in eight days and knows how tough the run will be as he told the BBC:
"This month will be very important for us as we have some difficult games against strong teams.
"During this spell we can understand what we must do for the future. It will be very tough because we play every three days.
"But first we must try to beat Salzburg and go through to the next stage."
Salzburg manager Huub Stevens is also looking ahead to his teams next domestic game, a Saturday clash with Austria Vienna. He told redbulls.com:
“Of course we will be giving our all against Man City and will try our luck in the Europa League, but I will have one eye on Saturday already this Wednesday as we really need to play Austria Vienna this Saturday with a fresh team.
Unfortunately we have to play again on Saturday; regrettably such kind of a fixture list is possible in Austria."
City will be able to choose from a nearly full squad, with Wayne Bridge and Emmanuel Adebayor returning from injury. Yaya Toure has recovered from the migraine he suffered against Stoke while Pablo Zabaleta, suspended domestically on Saturday, will be able to play in European competition.
For Salzburg defenders Christian Schwegler and Andreas Ulmer will be out, as well as forward Robin Nelisse and midfielder Nikola Pogrivac. Goalkeeper Eddie Gustaffson will also be missing.
City are selling tickets at £5 for adults and £1 for under 16s tonight in a bid to bring in extra fans.
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