Source: TheGuardian
Manchester City v Shakhtar Donetsk: Champions League – live!
Live updates from the 8pm kick-off at the EtihadWould Guardiola win the title with Man Utd’s squad?Juventus v Man Utd – live! | Follow all the goalsDrop Michael an email | Tweet @michaelbutler18 7.51pm GMT Ten minutes to go until kick-off, and the Etihad is half-empty. Not a great look. Be interesting to see what the official attendance is at half-time. Not that that will bother Shakhtar, who seem to thrive in these kind of vacuous venues. Remember the political circumstances mean that they play their football at a half-empty stadium in Kharkiv, 150 miles to the north of Donestsk. And when they went to Lyon in the group stage last month – a match played behind closed doors as a punishment for racism and crowd disorder in last season’s Europa League – they came away with a 2-2 draw, and were very unlucky not to win. 7.44pm GMT Pep speaks! He is asked “how much is Sunday a factor in your team selection tonight?”Zero. 7.42pm GMT If you’re interested in that Shakhtar-Dynamo game from the weekend, here are the highlights, featuring that magical 95-minute winner from Kovalenko. 7.36pm GMT It’s a big night for Gabriel Jesus, who has just two goals in 14 appearances this season, and none in the last six games. His quality is not in doubt, but the boy is clearly lacking in confidence. 7.33pm GMT There are already a couple of games underway in the Champions League: Valencia are 3-1 up at home to Young Boys, and Roma are leading CSKA Moscow 2-1. You can check in on the latest scores here. 7.30pm GMT This is pretty much City’s strongest XI, apart from Sergio Agüero on the bench, and Vincent Kompany/Benjamin Mendy given the night off. The same is true for Shakhtar, who will set up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Junior Moraes leading the line. The Brazilian scored at the weekend in a huge game in the Ukrainian league against Dynamo Kyiv, Shakhtar winning 2-1 after scoring an injury-time winner. Shakhtar top the table, eight points clear of Dynamo. 7.19pm GMT Man City: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Laporte, Zinchenko, Bernardo Silva, Fernandinho, Silva, Mahrez, Gabriel Jesus, Sterling. Subs: Muric, Danilo, Gundogan, Aguero, Delph, Sane, Otamendi. Shakhtar Donetsk: Pyatov, Matviyenko, Kryvtsov, Rakitskiy, Ismaily, Stepanenko, Maycon, Taison, Kovalenko, Bolbat, Junior Moraes. Subs: Shevchenko, Butko, Khocholava, Kayode, Dentinho, Alan Patrick, Wellington Nem. Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary) 2.31pm GMT Just in case you didn’t realise, last night was an absolutely vintage Champions League evening: last year’s finalists were comprehensively beaten in Belgrade, there was a last-minute winner at Wembley, there were even, enthralling draws between European superpowers, there was a spectacular goal in appallingly brilliant weather and don’t tell me you didn’t smile a little when you heard Thierry Henry’s Monaco lost 4-0 at home to Club Brugge. At a time when certain bigger clubs are discussing breaking away and forming a European Super League in order to line their pockets even more (and bore us to tears), this was the perfect advert for not doing so. The Champions League might have its flaws, but it is still a beautiful thing. Just listen to this last night at the San Siro. San Siro nessa noite de @ChampionsLeague pic.twitter.com/xI16ypeMRuBuzzing for tonight! ?? #mancity pic.twitter.com/ZlMSlrBeL9 Continue reading......read full article
