Jamie Jackson's report
And catch up on the rest of tonight’s Champions League games …
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Gundogan: “We knew this game would be tough. Shakhtar also did a great job but we let them play and didn’t defend as well as we normally do. And our buildup was a bit slow today so we struggled to create. Unfortunately it was not our best performance but this is a competition where you have to struggle and deal with it.”
Angelino: “Tough night. We didn’t get the result we wanted but we’re top of the group so we have to take the positive things.”
Full-time: Man City 1-1 Shakhtar
Man City confirm their place in the knockout stages with one game to spare. Shakhtar will join them there if they get a draw, at least, in their last group game, which is at home to Atalanta. So it’s mission kind of accomplished by City but they’ll be slightly irked by this performance, in which they lacked pep and precision and always looked vulnerable to counter-attacks. Players who did well? Fernandinho and Bernardo Silva. Pretty much everyone else was significantly below par, with Jesus and Sterling finding it particularly hard to get involved.
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90+2 min: Shakhtar are trying to keep it down in the City half to preserve their point. City are irritated but no more than that.
90 min: Fernandinho booked for clattering into Tete. That rules him out of City’s pointless last group game. He’ll be devastated about that.
Shakhtar substitution: Sikan on, Moraes off.
88 min: Otamendi sends the ball towards the stars from 25 yards.
86 min: Angelino dabs a cross into the box from the left. A token gesture, really, and easy pickings for the keeper. City have been short of precision and speed today.
84 min: Shakhtar are happy with the point, which they are protecting with metaphorical barricades.
82 min: After prolonged probing by City, Foden arrows a pass from deep towards Bernardo Silva, but a defender does well to outjump the Portuguese and head into his keeper’s arms.
Shakhtar substitution: Antonio on, Kovalenko off.
78 min: In case you’re thinking of abandoning this now, know that Shakhtar scored in stoppage time in their previous two away matches in this group...
Man City substitution: Foden on, Rodri off. That should increase the inventiveness quotient.
75 min: Rodri to David Silva to Bernardo Silva - a fast and fluid City move the like of which they haven’t produced very much today. The Portuguese Silva’s cross is clasped by the keeper.
73 min: Rodri pows a low shot into the keeper’s arm from 20 yards. Foden gets the signal to warm-up. Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s introduced to Rodri.
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71 min: Jesus bears the keeper to a dinked pass over the top. From a difficult angle the striker plays it back to the recently arrived David Silva, who spoons it goalward from eight yards. Kryvtsov nearly helps it over the line with his first touch but rescues himself by sliding it clear with his second!
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Man City substitution: D Silva on, De Bruyne off.
GOAL! Man City 1-1 Shakhtar (Solomon 69)
Just when they seemed to be fading, Shakhtar hit back with a superb counter-attack! They played their way forward brilliantly before Tete slipped a pass to the overlapping Dodo, who cut it back from the byline for Solomon, who rammed a low shot into the net from 10 yards!
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69 min: Another bad pass by Rodri, under no pressure. He’s been slack today.
67 min: De Bruyne drops a corner into the six-yard box. Fernandinho nods wide.
Shakhtar substitution: Solomon on, Konoplyanka off.
65 min: City have Shakhtar where they want them now. The visitors are scared to open up too much in search of the an equaliser because they know that’s exactly what City want them to do.
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63 min: Cancelo shapes to shoot with his right foot from 25 yards, then chops back on to his left and drills in a low one. Pyatov gets down to save.
61 min: Sterling cuts on to his right foot and tries to arc a curler into the top corner from the edge of the box. Cute idea, flawed execution.
60 min: Sterling gets back to deflect a cross by Tete out for a corner. Konoplyanka drives it too far over the other side of the box.
GOAL! Man City 1-0 Shakhtar (Gundogan 57)
De Bruyne receives the ball on the half-turn between Shakhtar’s midfield and defence. He pings a low pass into Jesus near the penalty spot. The striker does well to roll his way between two defenders and then get a toe to the ball as the keeper tries to pounce, poking it to Gundgoan, who finishes smartly from 10 yards. City have the breakthrough at last.
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56 min: Skakhtar dink a quick freekick towards Moraes, who’s denied by a superb tackle by Fernandinho five yards from goal!
54 min: Fernandinho is stepping up more frequently. Good. He’s a more creative passer than Rodri. Overall, though, there’s still not enough zip in City’s play.
52 min: Tete, only 19, looks like he could become another shrewd Brazilian signing by Shakhtar. He’s fast and dangerous down the right, but still a little gauche in his finishing on this evidence. Obvious potential, though, and someone City need to keep an eye on here.
49 min: Atalanta have gone 2-0 up on Dinamo Zagreb in this group’s other match, which is good news for both of these sides. It could mean that even if City lose here, they will qualify.
48 min: Sterling floats over a cross from the right. Jesus does well to get to it but can’t get enough power into his header to trouble the keeper.
48 min: City pop the ball around in front of Skakhtar’s massed defence. But as soon as they try to make an incursion into the box, they are foiled.
46 min: Here we go again, as Whitesnake nearly sang. No personnel changes during the interval.
Why not amuse yourselves during the break by reading about the two Club Brugge players who got sent off for celebrating a last-ditch equaliser in Galatasaray earlier.
Half-time: Man City 0-0 Shakhtar Donetsk
This scoreline would be enough to book City’s place in the next round but Guardiola will be frustrated, all the same, at how difficult his team have found the going so far. They’ve looked too ponderous against well-organised opponents who have carried a threat on the counter-attack. If not for a super clearance by Fernandinho after goofing by Ederson, City would be behind. Silva has been City’s most impressive player so far; De Bruyne has also been good by his final pass has been uncharacteristically imprecise; Rodri has seen plenty of the ball and used it tidily but he’s no Fernandinho; Sterling and Jesus have struggled to get involved.
45 min: Silva cuts infield from the right and aims a delicious cross towards the back post. Two City players are waiting for it ... but Kyvtsov dives between the pair of them to head clear brilliantly!
43 min: De Bruyne is expected to swing in a corner from wide on the right but instead pulls it sideways to Cancelo, who tries to clip a dinky one to the back post from just outside the area. But he doesn’t get enough air on it and it’s cleared without hassle.
41 min: An excellent tackle by Matviyenko prevents De Bruyne from finding Jesus with a nice first-time pass.
39 min: Gundogan’s shot from over 20 yards flies wide via a deflection off a defender.
37 min: Rodri sprays the ball wide to Silva. But when City work the ball back to him from the flank, Rodri plays a hasty pass straight to a defender. That’s symptomatic of how City have become a little frazzled in the face of peskily decent opponents. Skhakhar are defending in numbers and then attacking with speed and flair.
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35 min: Jesus has been working hard, as ever, but his teammates have not been able to ind him in the right place at the right time.
33 min: One cute ball from deep catches out City again! Fortunately for them, Moraes can’t get a touch on it despite stretching out a leg in the hope of poking it past the advancing Ederson near the edge of the area.
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32 min: De Bruyne pulls a corner back to Gundogan, who sends it back even farther, to Angelino. The left-back delivers a good cross from deep. Otamendi shows determination and timing to get to it first and butts a powerful header goalward from eight yards. Straight at the keeper, though.
30 min: This is turning into a decent game even if City aren’t at their slick best. Two very tidy teams full of enterprise, albeit mostly on the counter-attack for the visitors. They’re pretty well matched so far.
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27 min: Silva finds De Bruyne in midfield as City gallop forward on the coutner. De Bruyne plays it to CAnelo, running in on the right-hand side of the box. The full-back wrongfoots the defender in his way by checking back instead of shooting. Then he clips a cross towards the back post. No one had anticipated that, so it drifts wide.
25 min: Jesus nips in to win possession for City and immediately feed Rodri, who has a quick look around and decides to go for goal himself from 25 yards. He tries the precise sidefooter but it’s too close to Pyatov, who saves easily.
21 min: Rodri is the metronome in the centre of City’s midfield. He’s yet to produce a really incisive pass but has played dozens of small ones to set City’s rhythm, which, truth be told, has not been fast enough.
19 min: Skakhtar are very tidy technicians. They have played their way back into this game after City dominated the first 10 minutes or so. City aren’t dynamic enough out of possession.
17 min: Konoplyanka opens up City’s high defence with a pass through to Tete .... but it’s slightly overhit, allowing Ederson to sprint out again and make a clearance. Impressive from the goalkeeper, clearly undeterred by his blunder of a moment ago. Two big warnings for City, though.
15 min: Ederson rushes out to intercept a ball over the top of the City defence .... and he completely misses it! Suddenly Tete is running towards an empty goal from a difficult angle wide on the right. Otamendi and Fernandiho charge back as tete tries to manoeuvre himself into a better shooting position, which he does a little sluggishly. When he gets off his shot, Fernandinho slides in to deflect it wide! A monumental let-off for Ederson!
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13 min: Rodri gets away with a shirt-tug on Alan near the centre circle. It was not enough to stop the Brazilian from spinning free and nudging a nice pass through to a teammate. That’s as good as the move gets for Shakhtar, though.
11 min: Silva releases the underlapping Cancelo with a beautiful pass. The full-back then pulls it back from the byline towards the edge of the area, but no City player can get on the end of it.
9 min: Tete dashes down the right as Shakhtar launch their first counter-attack of the game. But it peters out before they even reach the box, as Tete mislays his pass.
8 min: Sterling roves in from the left, weighs up his options and slips a pass through to De Bruyne, who sidesteps Matviyenko just inside the box before his shot is blocked.
6 min: De Bruyne, as ever, is at the hub of nearly all City’s attacks. After receiving a pass in the ‘hole’ twixt Shakhatr’s midfield and defence, he slides a clever ball through for Jesus to get on the end of it. Ach, it’s fractionally too long! The keeper collects.
4 min: Otamendi steps out of defence to lead an attack. He pops the ball wide to Silva, who helps it on to De Bruyne. The Belgian tries to deliver a cross on the run but it’s deflected behind for a corner, which yields nothing.
2 min: Angelino collects the ball in an advanced position wide on the left and pows a low pass towards Sterling at the edge of the area. Sterling dummies it to Jesus ... who dummies it to De Bruyne ... who inadvertently dummies it to a defender. He meant to feint and collect the pass but got his timing wrong.
1 min: We have kickoff! Shakhtar do the necessary ... and within seven seconds, City have possession thanks to Gundogan.
Here come the teams, entering the pitch to a polite round of applause. The stadium looks to be close to full. And, as per tradition, City fans greet the Champions League anthem with righteous boos.
Here’s what Guardiola says to expect from Shakhtar: “We know them quite well. They’ve changed their manager [since last season] but the philosophy is nearly th same. They put a lot players in the middle to play short passes and they are are so fast up front. They have quality. We have to play with energy and move the ball quickly.”
BT’s Paul Dempsey asks Pep Guardiola about Man City’s craving for the Champions League validation. Pep’s suggests his plucky outfit are just happy to be competing at this level. “Liverpool have six [Champions League titles] and this clubs has one semi-final ... so we are far, far away from the You’ll Never Walk Alone team.”
Teams
Jesus starts! But Benjamin Mendy is given a rest, with Angelino coming in on the left. David Silva can stand down, too, as Bernardo Silva is back. And look, there’s Scott Carson on the bench! With Claudio Bravo suspended, Carson is a step closer to making his Man City debut - though that would probably require some mishap befalling Ederson.
City: Ederson; Cancelo, Otamendi, Fernandinho, Angelino; De Bruyne, Rodri, Gundogan; B Silva, Jesus, Sterling
Subs: Carson, Foden, Mahrez, Mendy, D Silva, Stones, Walker
Shakhtar: Pyatov; Dodo, Kyrvtsov, Matviyenko, Ismaily; Alan, Stepanenko; Kovalenko, Konoplyanka, Tete; Moraes
Subs: Bolbat, Cipriano, Khocholava, Shevchenko, Sikan, Antonio, Solomon
Referee: Slavko Vinčić (Slovenia)
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Preamble
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?
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