Man City could get triple boost for next season's title challenge as World Cup play-offs begin

Pep Guardiola will begin holding his breath on Thursday night as this week's international fixtures get under way. For most games, Manchester City will be simply hoping that their players return with no injuries - but they may have a selfish reason for hoping three of their players experience defeat in the coming days.

England don't play until the weekend, while they and other countries have helped City out by not selecting the likes of Kyle Walker, Gabriel Jesus or Kevin De Bruyne. A number of players are still in action, though, with the USA, Algeria and Portugal still to secure a World Cup 2022 spot. Ukraine and Aleks Zinchenko can also still qualify, but are understandably not in action this week.

Portgual have perhaps the hardest path to qualification, beginning on Thursday night, as they host Turkey in the UEFA play-offs for one of the final places at Qatar.

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Portugal must beat Turkey, and then the winner of North Macedonia vs European Champions Italy to qualify as one huge nation will be left at home in December.

With Ruben Dias injured, Portugal's task has been made a little harder, but they still have Bernardo Silva and Joao Cancelo to play a key role in two crucial games.

City may have preferred that two of their most important players are involved in such intense fixtures this week ahead of their treble run-in that follows, but Guardiola has always insisted it is an honour for players to play for their countries and represent them at the biggest tournaments. The fact that 13 City players have already booked a place in the tournament reflects brilliantly on the club, with six more potentially joining them.

Ultimately, the better