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Manchester City omit three key players from squad to face RB Leipzig.
Manchester City has omitted three key players from the Champions League squad to face RB Leipzig on Wednesday.
John Stones, Aymeric Laporte, and Kevin De Bruyne won’t be playing for Manchester City against RB Leipzig.
Stones has been out with an injury for the previous two weeks, but De Bruyne and Laporte both started Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest, with the former completing 88 minutes and the latter playing the full 90.
Just a few days later, Pep Guardiola’s squad will head to Germany to face Leipzig in the first leg of their last-16 tie without either De Bruyne or Laporte.
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Kyle Walker, a defender, did not participate in training leading up to the game but was nonetheless named to the starting lineup.
De Bruyne and Laporte’s absences have not been explained.
In their stead, Guardiola gave Maximo Perrone, a January signing, his first experience of European football. The 20-year-old was a substitute for City during their loss to Tottenham after joining from Velez Sarsfield, but he hasn’t been seen since.
While this is the first match in which De Bruyne won’t be travelling with the team, he was unexpectedly left out of the starting lineup to face Tottenham that day and only started three of City’s six group-stage matches in the Champions League.
Shea Charles of Northern Ireland, a promising midfielder, and Alex Robertson, a 19-year-old midfielder who was on the bench for a Carabao Cup match against Liverpool earlier this season, are both included in the team.