Guardiola's Manchester City take on La Liga outfit Sevilla at the Karaiskakis Stadium in this annual shoot-out between the winners of the previous season's Champions League and Europa League. 

City, appearing in the Super Cup for the first time, are 2/9 to add it to last season's treble. Sevilla, in contrast, are dab hands at this match. As habitual Europa League winners, the Andalusians are making their seventh Super Cup appearance yet the 7/1 match outsiders are hoping to win it for just the second time. 

Do the Spaniards still bear scars from last season's double defeat?

What	Man City v Sevilla
Where	Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus
When	20:00, Wednesday 16th August, 2023
How to watch	TNT Sports 1
Odds	Man City 4/11, Draw 4/1, Sevilla 7/1

Manchester City and Sevilla arrive in Piraeus after achieving glory in two different European competitions last season, yet their paths still crossed during the 2022/23 schedule.

Before the Spanish giants went on to enjoy a stellar Europa League spring, they had been pitched in the Champions League in a group featuring City, Borussia Dortmund and Copenhagen.

And the Spaniards found it hard going. On Matchday One, under head coach Julen Lopetegui, Sevilla welcomed City to southern Spain and were battered 4-0, Erling Haaland scoring twice.

Then on Matchday Six back in Manchester and now with Jorge Sampaoli at the helm, Sevilla were beaten 3-1 and ejected to the Europa League where in May – and with a third head coach, this time Jose Luis Mendilibar, in charge – they would win that competition for a record seventh time, beating Roma on penalties.

Tough times at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan

Considering Sevilla's insatiable appetite for clocking up Europa League wins, these are actually difficult times at the club.

Having become the fourth best team in Spain with a trio of fourth-place finishes up to 2021/22, last season was a shocker.

The Sampaoli experiment did not work and at one stage Los Rojiblancos were 19th in La Liga and genuinely fretting over the prospect of relegation.

Mendilibar arrived to steady the ship and they eventually finished 12th, disappointing but a long way from the disaster it could have been.

A new season brings new hope, new expectations, yet sadly for Sevilla their campaign could not have suffered a worse start, beaten 2-1 at home by a bang average Valencia side on Saturday.

City's juggernaut continues to brush aside rivals

City have already played one 'cup final' this season, the more low-key Community Shield which they lost on penalties to Arsenal.

Five days later, however, they put down a title warning to all their rivals with a consummate 3-0 win at Burnley where Haaland scored twice.

The one negative at Turf Moor was seeing Kevin De Bruyne limping away with a hamstring tweak which rules him out for a few weeks. 

Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva are also sidelined and, as ever, it is very hard to second guess quite what side Guardiola will field for a game which, though significant, is surely less important than Saturday night's Premier League showdown at home to Newcastle.

Sevilla were already resigned to being without centre-backs Tanguy Nianzou and Marcao, but have now been rocked by the last-minute withdrawal of Fernando Reges, a cast-iron pick alongside Ivan Rakitic in the heart of midfield.

Summer signing Djibril Sow from Eintracht Frankfurt and the dependable Oliver Torres are expected to accompany Rakitic in midfield.

European champs should have too much class

There is no certainty regarding the side Pep Guardiola will send out, but what is beyond dispute is that City are the clearest favourites at 2/9 to lift the Super Cup at the first time of asking.

And given events over the past 12 months, a period which has seen City's stock continue to rise in Europe while Sevilla slip off the pace at home, the English champions are hard to oppose.

But if we know anything about Sevilla, it's that they have this fabulous knack of winning cups, especially in Europe, and that makes them impossible to write off out of hand.

And City, of course, have been clear favourites for the last three one-off cup ties they have played in the past few months, yet they made heavy weather of beating both Manchester United and Inter Milan in the FA Cup and Champions League finals respectively, and drew with Arsenal in the Community Shield.

City still look well-equipped to beat a Sevilla side who have not won any of their last seven in 90 minutes. The Man City-Man City Half Time/Full Time at 1/1 looks attractive while a 2-0 City correct score is suggested at 11/2.