| Резюме: | Hello. Manchester City and Shakhtar Donetsk meet today with both hoping to secure their place in the Champions League knockout phase - but one club’s hopes are a lot more realistic than the other’s. City, you see, only need to avoid losing at home to the Ukrainians, whom they squashed 3-0 away earlier in this group. Shakhtar’s reconnaissance missions don’t offer them any more cause for optimism: they have been to the Etihad twice in the last two years and lost by a combined score of 8-0. But let’s not dismiss them completely: they are, after all, a side who are accustomed to beating everyone ... on the domestic front, where they are runaway league leaders and have not lost for 44 matches. Still, it is really only for the same of completeness that we mention that Shakhtar will qualify for the next round if they win today and the group’s other game ends in a victory for Atalanta over Dinamo Zagreb – and even if that happened, City would still go through, but not necessarily as group winners. If those permutations don’t grab you, then perhaps you’ll find intrigue in the lineups. Which personnel will Pep Guardiola send out? City have three Premier League games in eight days coming up, concluding with the Manchester derby, and it looks like Sergio Aguero will not be able to play in them, which means the importance of Gabriel Jesus has increased. Will the Brazilian and other key players be left out today? Or will Guardiola insist on fielding a full-strength team make sure the job gets done today and, perhaps, to help his men get back into a dominant groove after being jolted out of their stride before beating Chelsea last weekend? Continue reading... |