Manchester City forward Antoine Semenyo ruled out for eight weeks with knee injury

City suffer major blow as Semenyo faces two-month lay-off

Manchester City have been dealt a significant injury setback, with forward Antoine Semenyo expected to be sidelined for around eight weeks after sustaining a knee injury in Saturday's 3-2 Premier League victory over Ipswich Town.

Semenyo came on as a 77th-minute substitute against Ipswich and played out the remainder of the match, but at Monday's pre-match press conference ahead of City's Champions League tie with AEK Athens, manager Enzo Maresca confirmed the 25-year-old was hurt in that game and could now miss two months of action.

Maresca refuses to regret selection call

Despite the timing of the injury, Maresca insists Manchester City did not mismanage the forward's condition and has no regrets over handing him minutes at the weekend. The Italian pointed out that Semenyo was one of the players he had actively tried to rest, having made five or six changes from the Paris Saint-Germain defeat to the Ipswich fixture.

"Of the five problems that we had, Nico [O'Reilly] started, Mateo [Kovacic] started, Matheus [Nunes] started, then Erling [Haaland] also played from the start," Maresca said. "Antoine was the only one [who got injured], so sometimes things happen and you need to just find solutions for the next time.

"You try to control everything, but sometimes it is so complicated because things happen that we cannot control – we try our best and think we about how we can keep players fit. We need to pay attention [to workloads] and this is why we made changes against Ipswich, that's why we also need to make some changes tomorrow.

"There are things that you can't control, like Antoine's injury. We tried to save him, we tried to keep him fresh and just give him some minutes. He didn't play a lot but sometimes things happen. I think we made five or six changes from PSG to Ipswich, but again, Antoine was one of the players we preferred to give some rest, and then he played and got injured."

A key creative outlet lost

Semenyo has been one of City's most productive attackers this term, registering five goal involvements in all competitions (two goals, three assists). Only Erling Haaland (12) and Rayan Cherki (seven) have contributed more for the club this season.

With the Ghana international now ruled out, Maresca's focus turns to finding alternative attacking solutions rather than dwelling on the decision to field him against Ipswich.

Haaland fit, but little margin for error in Europe

The news is not all bad for City, with Haaland available to face AEK after appearing to pick up a painful knock in the closing stages of the Ipswich match.

City sit on three points after two Champions League matchdays, having been outclassed 4-2 by Paris Saint-Germain last week. When asked whether that defeat left his side with less room for error in the remainder of the league phase, Maresca was unconcerned.

"I don't think one game is going to change our plan or our idea in terms of what we want to do," he said. "The target is always to try and win games. For sure, after the defeat against PSG, we need to win games and that is why I said that tomorrow is an important game."

Strong home record against outsiders

Tuesday's clash will be the first competitive meeting between City and AEK Athens. The Citizens have never lost to a Greek side in four previous encounters, winning three and drawing one without conceding a goal. The last team from outside Europe's big five leagues to win away at City in the Champions League was Basel in March 2018 (a 2-1 victory); since then, the Citizens are unbeaten in 15 such games (W12 D3), averaging 3.1 goals per match.