Cardiff V Man City at Cardiff City Stadium : LIVE

25 August 2013 15:38
Cardiff V Man City - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.


Cornelius set for debut

Andreas Cornelius could make his Barclays Premier League debut when Cardiff host Manchester City.


The Danish striker missed last weekend's defeat at West Ham due to an ankle injury, but is fighting fit for the visit of Manuel Pellegrini's men.


Andrew Taylor is set to slot in at left-back in place of Declan John having been suspended last week, while boss Malky Mackay must weigh up whether to give John Brayford a debut on the other side of defence in place of Matthew Connolly.


Mackay has vowed hisside will not shy away from the challenge when they face big-spending City.


The Welsh capital will host a Barclays Premier League game for the first time, and the Bluebirds could hardly have wished for higher profile visitors.


Pellegrini has recruited the likes of Jesus Navas, Fernandinho and Alvaro Negredo during the summer, and the deposed champions produced a real statement of intent in brushing Newcastle aside 4-0 on Monday night.


Cardiff, on the other hand, are looking to bounce back from the disappointment of their opening day defeat at West Ham, and there will be few giving them any chance of getting a result.


But their home form last season was key in their Championship title success, and Mackay and his side have no intention of surrendering meekly.


"We have got to try and make our stadium a fortress," said the Scot.


"We have to make sure that it is a tough ask for any team that comes down to our stadium.


"I have no doubt the way our fans will be this season in terms of their ferocity, support and passion for our club and the way our stadium is, it will lend itself to noise, like we had last season.


"We will have tough teams coming, top teams coming here and it will be a test for us. But we are relishing that."


City captain Vincent Kompany (groin) misses the trip and could be sidelined for a month.





Matija Nastasic will replace him in central defence if he can prove his fitness after an ankle injury.





Fellow defender Micah Richards (hamstring) is likely to be out for another week while striker Stevan Jovetic (hamstring) hopes to be available to make his debut.


While City may have some issues in their defence, there appears to be no problems in attack after the Newcastle demolition.


The issue for Pellegrini is whether his men can maintain such an intensity.


He said: "It's always difficult to maintain that level but we are sure that in


a lot of games we are going to do it. "Maybe some times we will win just 1-0 and defending, but we will try to do what we did last Monday in every game.


"Of course maybe sometimes we will do it better and sometimes worse but we will try."

Source: DSG