adminLONDON. — Pep Guardiola has left Yaya Toure out of his Manchester City squad for the Champions League soccer group stages. Toure, whose agent told Sky Sports News that the 33-year-old Ivory Coast midfielder intends to stay and fight for his place at City, is yet to feature in any of Guardiola’s squads for their opening three English Premier League games.Joe Hart’s loan move to Torino meant City were unable to fill the eight homegrown spots required by UEFA as part of their 25-man squad, and as a result they have named only 21 players with Toure missing out.
City qualified for the group stages after coming through a play-off tie against Steaua Bucharest, where Toure played in the 1-0 second leg win at the Etihad Stadium.
Guardiola had played down Toure’s absence from the 18-man squad selected for the first leg of the tie, suggesting it was because he preferred Toure to go through further training. — Sky Sports.
Online Reporter