Borussia Moenchengladbach star Granit Xhaka issues warning to Manchester City: 'You'll know us when the game is over'

Swiss star Granit Xhaka has warned Manchester City not to underestimate Borussia Moenchengladbach when the two teams clash in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

Xhaka admits that City are unlikely to have heard of most of his teammates, but believes that the Bundesliga side are capable of causing an upset in the Group D tie at Borussia-Park.

Both clubs are in need of a win after losing their opening games, with City going down at home to Juventus after taking the lead.

Granit Xhaka juggles the ball in training as Borussia Moenchengladbach prepare to host Manchester City

The Swiss midfielder said that Manchester City’s stars will not have heard of the Moenchengladbach players

Moenchengladbach’s Xhaka celebrates scoring with Raffael after putting his side 1-0 against Stuttgard 

Xhaka said: ‘I doubt if Manchester City even know all our players but I’m sure they will know plenty of us once the game is over. 

‘We have to respect every team. They’re a great team whatever injuries they’ve got. But we can’t be afraid, we’ve got to play with good pressure.’

Borussia are welcoming European Cup football back to the town after a 37-year absence, but it has not been a good season so far with the Champions League defeat away to Sevilla and five successive losses in the Bundesliga leading to the sudden resignation of manager Lucien Favre earlier this month.

However, they have won their last two games under interim boss Andre Schubert, who has stepped up from coaching the Under-23s, and Xhaka insists that the Germans meet City in much better shape. They have scored seven goals in those two victories with Xhaka, the 23-year-old Switzerland midfielder, scoring in both.

Xhaka said that City were the strongest team his side will play in group D, which also contains Juventus

The 23-year-old goes through some running drills with his team-mates ahead of Wednesday night’s match

‘It’s always good to win games, it gives you confidence,’ he added. ‘We’re ready for this match. City will probably be the strongest team we will play against, but we’ll give it our best.’

City head for Germany having lost three of their last four games – starting with that defeat to Juve – and with a number of injury concerns.

David Silva, who has been missing since the loss to the Italians, and Yaya Toure, who came off in the 4-1 thumping at Tottenham on Saturday, both trained in Manchester on Tuesday morning along with goalkeeper Joe Hart. But captain Vincent Kompany, Eliaquim Mangala and Wilfried Bony were absent.

But interim boss Schubert is refusing to pay much attention to the players who won’t be involved. He said: ‘We don’t need to prepare for injured players, but City have many good players. Injuries are not a decisive factor for us.

Moenchengladbach’s interim manager Andre Schubert said his team will attack against City on Wednesday

Schubert leads his side in training, Moenchengladbach have won their last two games scoring seven goals

‘City want to concentrate on the Champions League because they know how important it is. It’s the same for us, we lost five in a row then we won against Augsburg and Stuttgart. You have to go into it with a different way of thinking.

‘City are a very good team, of course they have good players, but they are not unbeatable. We know our strengths and what we can do, and we also know the quality of the opposition.

‘We can’t go into it being afraid. This team qualified through having a really great season. We have quality, we will go for a goal, and we’ll see what City can do. We have our strengths and we’ll play to those strengths.’

The game also sees Kevin De Bruyne making an early return to the Bundesliga following his £54m summer move to City from Wolfsburg. The Belgium star scored 10 goals in his last season in Germany and has already claimed three in each of his last three games for City, and Schubert revealed that they have a plan to try and contain him.

He added: ‘We defend as a team and play for spaces. The player who is marking the zone that Kevin De Bruyne goes into it is responsible for him. If one player is beaten, we will have another one to back him up. We know that and that’s the way we are going to go into the game.’