PREVIEW: Fiorentina v Manchester City

Manchester City will be looking to confirm their place in the quarter-finals of this season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League when they face Fiorentina in the second leg of their round of 16 tie in Florence on Thursday afternoon.

Gareth Taylor’s side hold a significant 3-0 advantage from the first leg and only a complete collapse would see City fail to reach the last eight.

Taylor continues to be without the services of Demi Stokes, Gemma Bonner and Megan Campbell for the match at the Studio Artemio Franchi while the City head coach was remaining tight-lipped over whether he will use the occasion to rotate his squad when speaking in his pre-match press conference in which FAWSL Full-Time were present. It is understood that Taylor will monitor the squad in the 24 hours leading up to kick-off before determining whether to make changes.

Fiorentina go into the second leg after suffering another domestic defeat at the weekend as they lost 1-0 at Sassuolo. Antonio Cicotta’s side are clinging onto a place in the top half of the Serie A table and it is highly unlikely that we will see them playing in the UEFA Women’s Champions League again next season.

Manchester City’s UEFA Women’s Champions League round of 16 second leg tie against Fiorentina is scheduled to kick-off at 1pm on Thursday afternoon and fans will be able to watch the action live on BT Sport 1 and on City+.

Daniel Pentland

I am the editor and owner of FAWSL Full-Time magazine. I have been reporting on men’s and women’s football at various levels since summer 2015. Some of the events which I have reported from include the 2017 UEFA Women’s European Championship, 2018 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, SSE Women’s FA Cup final, Emirates FA Cup final, UEFA Europa League, English Football League and various international matches.

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