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2024/25 English Premier League
Matchday 30
Manchester City v Leicester City
Etihad Stadium
Manchester, England
Wednesday, 2 April 2025
Kick-off is at 20h45
Manchester City will be looking to get their top-four challenge back on track when they welcome beleaguered Leicester to the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, April 2.
The Citizens' struggles this season continued after they squandered an early lead against Brighton on March 15 to be pegged back to a 2-2 draw.
Pep Guardiola's side had already suffered a disappointing 1-0 defeat to high-flying Nottingham Forest seven days prior - their ninth loss of the campaign - while they also went down 2-0 to
Premier League leaders Liverpool on February 23.
A run of just two wins from their last five outings has left City six points outside the top four in sixth place, with Newcastle and Brighton breathing down their necks a further point back.
The Foxes seem destined for a swift return to the Championship as the appointment of Ruud van Nistelrooy as head coach has not had the desired effect on results.
Van Nistelrooy has only won one of his 16 matches at the helm since replacing Steve Cooper on November 29 and a 3-0 reverse to Manchester United on March 16 extended their losing streak to six games.
As such, the East Midlands outfit find themselves nine points adrift of safety in 19th position with just nine fixtures remaining in the season.
Guardiola's cause hasn't been helped by persistent injuries and he must do without Rodri (knee), Nathan Ake (ankle), John Stones (thigh) and Manuel Akanji (groin) for the visit of Leicester, while Ederson (chest), Bernardo Silva and Oscar Bobb are all rated doubtful.
Van Nistelrooy has an almost fully-fit squad at his disposal, with just Issahaku Fatawu (knee) ruled out. Ricardo Pereira could come back into contention though, after missing a large chunk of the campaign with hamstring problems.
Guardiola believes that the battle for UEFA Champions League qualification could go down to the wire and is targeting a strong finish to the season to achieve that objective.
"Nine games, nine finals. It looks like it [will go down to the last day]," the Spaniard said. "Nine games still until the end of the season. We have tough games.
"It was quite similar to Nottingham Forest. Okay, we didn't lose. The goal was not good enough but it will be [tight] until the end."
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Van Nistelrooy insists no-one at the King Power Stadium have given up hope yet despite the big gap to Wolves and admits results are just not going their way.
"The players are trying, they are doing everything that they can and investing in the training sessions, working hard, but results are not there and that's hard week in, week out," the Dutchman said.
"We're in a similar situation to Ipswich and Southampton. The three promoted sides don't have a lot of results. We have to keep getting up and believing in our work and try our best every game.
"The gap is big, it's nine points, we know that, and the players were very disappointed in the dressing room (after the United defeat), but we can't give up."
Head-to-Head (Last Five Premier League Meetings)
Matches - 5
Man City wins - 5
Leicester wins - 0
Draws - 0
Premier League Matchday 30 fixtures:
Tuesday, April 1
20h45: Arsenal v Fulham
20h45: Wolverhampton Wanderers v West Ham United
21h00: Nottingham Forest v Manchester United
Wednesday, April 2
20h45: Bournemouth v Ipswich Town
20h45: Brighton & Hove Albion v Aston Villa
20h45: Manchester City v Leicester City
20h45: Newcastle United v Brentford
20h45: Southampton v Crystal Palace
21h00: Liverpool v Everton
Thursday, April 3
21h00: Chelsea v Tottenham Hotspur
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