Man City's Champions League plans severely disrupted by Guardiola press conference delay

In dangerous weather conditions, Manchester City's arrival in Lisbon was significantly delayed.

Mancun's infamous drizzle is well known, but Lisbon was the city grappling with torrential weather on Monday. Consequently, City's schedule took a hit as head coach Pep Guardiola and midfielder Bernardo Silva were scheduled to hold a press conference around 7:10 p.m. However, this has since been postponed to 8 p.m.

This setback comes at an inopportune time for the team looking to bounce back from back-to-back losses. Despite these travel issues, a productive training session took place earlier today in Manchester.

City's plane flew over Lisbon for a prolonged period as they were forced to wait before landing in the Portuguese capital, postponing their plans upon arrival.

Guardiola brought 22 members of his first team for the Champions League tie, although Jack Grealish, John Stones and Ruben Dias were notably absent. Promising left-back Josh Wilson-Ebrand has been brought back into the fold.

With City and Sporting tied on seven points after splitting their first three games in the revamped Champions League, their next meeting is highly anticipated.

Memories of City's emphatic 5-0 last-16 victory here in February 2022 linger, followed by a goalless draw that followed.

Sporting coach Ruben Amorim praised the opposition ahead of their clash, saying: “We are expecting a very difficult match, from the best team and the best coach in the world,” and added: ” Larger teams react more strongly.

“We're talking about injuries during the last match [Kevin] De Bruyne and Savinho were on the bench, but many players can recover. We are expecting a very difficult match, from the best team in the world, from the best coach in the world. It’s an exciting and tough game and we want to be competitive and win the game.”

Before flying to Portugal, Erling Haaland touched the deck during this morning's training session, in a moment that was captured by television cameras.

The striker clutched his leg in pain but quickly got back to his feet and his teammates did not appear concerned, although Guardiola will provide an update on his condition soon.