Summary
Not really much analysis to take from this game, which will largely be remembered for the absurd penalty awarded to Manchester City in the first half. City fully in control in Group F, although a late goal for Hoffenheim at Lyon means City don’t qualify with the win tonight. A miraculous 2-2 draw for Hoffenheim actually, who came back from 2-0 down with 10 men. This is how things stand. It would take a miracle for City not to qualify.
Fair play to Gabriel Jesus – he’s been inconsistent this season but scored a hat-trick tonight, twice taking responsibility from the spot before using his new-found confidence to score an audacious chip at the death. Pep Guardiola will be delighted.
Elsewhere there were good displays from David Silva, Fernandinho, Riyad Mahrez, Raheem Sterling (what a goal, btw) and Aymeric Laporte, whilst Sergio Aguero and Leroy Sané will be fully rested for Sunday’s Manchester derby. A perfect night for City.
You can read Paul Wilson’s match report right here. Cheerio!
Updated
Raheem Sterling speaks about the controversial first-half penalty:
I went to chip the ball and I don’t know what happened next. I kicked the turf. I don’t think I felt any contact. Apologies to the ref and apologies to Shakhtar.
We needed the win to keep the pressure on the others. Defeat to Lyon was a wake-up call and in the Champions League, these things can happen.”
Um, City fans won’t be delighted to hear that Manchester United have taken the lead at Juventus, though an own goal. Scenes!
Also, LOL:
Oh my days, Martin Keown...
— Ryan Grant (@RyanGrant01) November 7, 2018
“Could this be United’s best-ever result in Europe?” 😳🙈
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Full-time: Manchester City 6-0 Shakhtar Donetsk
Nothing between the two sides.
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GOAL! Manchester City 6-0 Shakhtar Donetsk (Gabriel Jesus 90+2 – hat-trick!)
Hat-trick for Gabriel Jesus, but suicidal defending from Shakhtar: Mahrez picks Rakitskiy’s pocket, sends Gabriel Jesus through on goal and the Brazilian simply chips the ball over Pyatov into the net. An exquisite lob. It’s not been the most comprehensive performance from Gabriel Jesus but he’s only bloody scored three times. So can’t complain.
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90 min: Two minutes added on here. I suggest you head over to Juventus v Manchester United, because Juan Mata has just scored a free-kick to equalise for José Mourinho’s side.
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88 min: City could have scored another couple since my last update. Mahrez, now operating on the left, crosses a dreamy ball behind Shakhtar’s defence and Pyatov rushes out and just about gets there. Ismaily cleans up and it’s a good job he did as otherwise Sterling would have had an open goal.
GOAL: 5-0
85 min: The irony is that since those substitutions, Shakhtar have probably been the better side. But in being more attacking, Shakhtar left gaping holes at the back. City counter-attack with three-one-one. Gabriel Jesus feeds Gundogan, who dinks a wonderful cross to Mahrez and the back post. The Algerian takes the ball down on his chest, lets the ball bounce and lashes the ball past Pyatov at the near post. The goalkeeper could probably have done better.
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GOAL! Manchester City 5-0 Shakhtar Donetsk (Mahrez 85)
Mahrez has been threatening that all night. That is now 20 goals in City’s last five home games, they have conceded just one in that time. This would also be City’s biggest ever Champions League win.
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81 min: Whatever happened to Ederson’s hair, I don’t like it.
79 min: Shakhtar have a free-kick, about 30 yards from goal. Following in the footsteps of free-kick-taking centre backs like Alex, Ronald Koeman and David Luiz, Rakitskiy steps and up and curls a wonderful effort towards the top corner, but Ederson gets across to make his first meaningful save of the night.
77 min: Fernandinho, who had assumed the captain’s armband when Silva went off, is himself withdrawn for Delph. A former Shakhtar player, he is clapped off by both sets of supporters.
Shakhtar also make a double change: Taison coming off for Alan Patrick (who sounds like he could be from Beswick but is actually Brazilian) and Maycon coming off for Wellington Nem.
75 min: Is there anybody that can do a stepover as effortlessly as Mahrez? The winger runs at Ismaily, does a couple of lollipops, but shoots wide.
74 min: David Silva’s work is done for the evening. One goal, one assist, cheers. Gundogan comes on to lukewarm applause.
GOAL! Manchester City 4-0 Shakhtar Donetsk (Gabriel Jesus pen 73)
Just as he did before, Gabriel Jesus sends Pyatov to his left, and shoots to the keeper’s right, his shot just creeping under the bar. A cracking penalty, actually.
Updated
Penalty to Manchester City! This one looks clear-cut …
73 min: Stepanenko is complaining to the referee, claiming he got some of the ball in a tackle on David Silva, but it’s an obvious spot-kick.
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72 min: Hoffenheim fans, do you want to the good news or the bad news? Always bad news first. Well, you’re down to 10 men – Kasim Nuhu seeing red – but you have scored through Andrej Kramaric, who now has three Champions League goals this season.
Lyon 2-1 Hoffenheim, then.
70 min: Cristiano Ronaldo has just scored an absolute pearler of a volley against former club Manchester United. Join Barry Glendenning for that one, if you’re interested.
68 min: Manchester City have never won a Champions League game by more than four goals, so that’s something to aim for, at least.
66 min: Shakhtar have a corner! Ismaily got forward well to win, but Rakitskiy doesn’t bother to beat the first man with his cross. Waste.
64 min: Does anybody else find City fans’ singing of ‘Allez, Allez, Allez’ slightly grating?
62 min: Júnior Moraes, Shakhtar’s striker, has been woefully isolated this evening and he is hooked by manager Paolo Fonseca. Olarenwaju Kayode, who was actually on Manchester City’s books last season (on loan at Girona and Shakhtar) comes on in his place.
60 min: City make their first change, Guardiola with one eye on Sunday’s Manchester derby. Kyle Walker comes off, Danilo comes on. The Brazilian has only played in the League Cup this season, so this is probably quite exciting for him.
58 min: Bernardo Silva doesn’t really have much pace but he somehow sears past Mayviyenko to the byline and crosses, the ball dinking through the six-yard box where nobody is there to tap it in.
56 min: City are the outright favourites to win this season’s Champions League. You can see why this evening. And this is without five of their most important players: Agüero, Mendy, De Bruyne, Sané and Kompany.
54 min: Another penalty shout for City! Silva showed exceptional feet, turning Kryvtsov in knots, and the Shakhtar defender clumsily falls leans on the back of the Spaniard, who goes down just in front of the byline. Another tight one, seen them given, but probably the right call. City’s fans literally don’t care, almost as if they would rather see a tight game than this descending into 4, 5, 6-0.
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52 min: Not that the City fans are bothered. “Stand up, for the champions” sing the home crowd.
50 min: Penalty shout for City as Sterling goes down in the box! Not given! Ooooooooh, that was probably another wrong call, but perhaps a hangover of the one that he did give in the first half. Sterling played a one-two with Zinchenko, Mayviyenko got the wrong side and put his arm across Sterling’s path – the Englishman went down a little easily, but it’s probably a foul.
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48 min: 3-0
A wonderful, wonderful solo goal. Sterling picks the ball up with his back to goal in midfield, turns sharply, somehow squeezes past the pincer tackles of both Maycon and Stepanenko, and curls a peach into the top right-hand corner. That’s a Fifa goal, an R2 finish. Wow.
GOAL! Manchester City 3-0 Shakhtar Donetsk (Sterling 48)
Well that’s that then.
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46 min: I do hope that Shakhtar show a bit more attacking intent in this second half. I know that they are missing Marlos, one of their playmakers, but they haven’t threatened at all.
Peeeeeeeeeeep! And we’re back underway at the Etihad.
Have you got any more examples of sportsmanship that has warmed your heart in years gone by? Doesn’t have to just be limited to penalties being/not being awarded, of course.
You can email me michael.butler@theguardian.com or tweet me @michaelbutler18.
I always liked West Ham’s Paolo Di Canio choosing to catch the ball rather than score when Everton’s goalkeeper Paul Gerrard lying injured in the penalty area. He won the Fifa’s Fair Play Award for 2001 for that.
Here is another example of sportsmanship, courtesy of Matt Northam.
@michaelbutler18 surely Sterling has to hold his hands up there & City ought to have followed the example set by Morten Wieghorst vs Iran https://t.co/C5qFpdNOZK. Shocking decision.
— matt northam ᴹᴺ (@mattnortham) November 7, 2018
Half-time reading:
Elsewhere, it’s Juventus 0-0 Manchester United at half-time.
For the rest of tonight’s scores, click here.
Half-time: Manchester City 2-0 Shakhtar Donetsk
I’m hearing that Guardiola actually tried to talk to the fourth official about not awarding a penalty. Still, he didn’t protest enough for it not to be given.
44 min: An email, from Geoff James. “Sterling may be a superb player, but he’s just demonstrated that his sportsmanship and ethics are woeful. After the match, of course, he’ll say he “wasn’t sure there was contact”. As for the officials, there’ll be usual lack of accountability or even the decency of an answer at all.”
Not sure I agree with all of that, and it’s not Sterling’s job to decide if it should have been a penalty. At worst, it’s probably a good opportunity missed for him to get some good press.
It will be interesting to see if the officials do hold their hands up though. Such a glaring error, you’ve sort of got to come out and just say sorry.
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42 min: Brilliant football from City. Mahrez takes a pass out of the sky, plays a lovely ball inside to Gabriel Jesus, who lays it off to Bernardo Silva. The Portuguese shoots, but a Stepanenko block takes it just wide of the far post.
Updated
40 min: Taison is the only Shakhtar player that looks capable of hurting City. For once, the captain slips away from Fernandinho, races through the middle towards City’s defence but doesn’t have support so ends up laying it off to Kovalenko. City regain their shape before Kovalenko shoots wildly into the stand.
38 min: This is the group, as it stands.
35 min: The tempo has gone out of the game. City are cruising.
32 min: Update from the other game in this group: Lyon are 2-0 up against Hoffenheim with goals from Nabil Fekir and Tanguy Ndombele. As things stand, Manchester City will quality tonight with a win.
28' GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLL!!! @TanguyNdombele makes it a 2-0 Lyon lead!! #OLHOF 2-0 pic.twitter.com/ETOHKk5oP6
— OL English (@OL_English) November 7, 2018
30 min: Gabriel Jesus is clean through on goal! He takes a touch, steadies himself, takes another touch and Kryvtsov somehow gets back to make a goal-saving slide tackle! Gabriel Jesus simply took too long, which is saying something because he literally had full seconds to pick his spot. The Brazilian may have scored a penalty, but he looks off the pace here.
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28 min: Since going 2-0 down, Shakhtar have actually played some of their best stuff of the night. Bolbat blazes over from the edge of the area after a nice cut back from Matviyenko, then the right back goes himself with a fierce shot, which is well blocked by Laporte.
26 min: It should be said that Sterling didn’t dive, he kicked the turf when he meant to kick the ball and fell over genuinely. I wonder if he should have owned up though. He knew it wasn’t a penalty.
Both Robbie Fowler and Aaron Hunt have done that in the past.
GOAL! Manchester City 2-0 Shakhtar Donetsk (Gabriel Jesus pen 25)
Gabriel Jesus gets his goal, sending Pyatov the wrong way. He looks mightily relieved, that’s the Brazilian’s first goal since September.
It’s a comical mistake by the referee Viktor Kassai. Pyatov the goalkeeper simply started laughing. Mayviyenko just shrugged his shoulders.
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Penalty to Manchester City! An absolutely shocking decision.
23 min: Sterling races through on goal, gets his feet all in a muddle, trips on the turf and the referee points to the spot! Matviyenko is penalised, but the Shakhtar right back was a good yard behind Sterling when he went down. To say that there wasn’t contact is an understatement, Matviyenko wasn’t even in the same postcode.
THAT IS A SHOCKER!
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) November 7, 2018
Raheem Sterling trips on the turf, unopposed and the referee awards a penalty kick. 😱 pic.twitter.com/vdCDsw8Qsf
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22 min: Anybody know where Phil Foden is? He’s not in the squad at all.
19 min: Shakhtar can’t keep the ball, can’t get out of their own half. The keeper Pyatov is rushed into mis-placing a pass straight to Zinchenko, who feeds Silva, who is very unlucky not to set up Gabriel Jesus with a chance with a reverse ball.
17 min: City are having fun now, Bernardo Silva deliciously nutmegs Stepanenko just outside Shakhtar’s box and tries his luck from range, but his shot is straight at Pyatov.
16 min: That’s Silva’s third consecutive Champions League game with a goal. The man gets better with time. He is surely City’s most important player of the last 10 years, maybe the club’s best ever player.
GOAL: 1-0
Mahrez twists and turns on the byline, sells Rakitskiy a dummy, and smashes the ball low across goal with his right foot, where Silva is waiting to tap it home from two yards out. Brilliant from Mahrez, terrible from Rakitskiy, who is off somewhere in Newton Heath trying to work how to get back to the Etihad.
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GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Shakhtar Donetsk (Silva 14)
You know what I was saying about Shakhtar defending well against Mahrez … yeah, you can forget about that.
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13 min: Zinchenko gets to the byline, digs out a great cross to the back post, but Gabriel Jesus can only head it straight at Pyatov. A weak effort.
12 min: My word, Taison is quick.
10 min: Shakhtar show some neat touches, right back Mayviyenko cutting inside and playing a wonderful slide-rule pass through to Moraes, who is forced a little wide but shoots low at Ederson. The keeper spills it but is lucky that no other Shakhtar player was in the vicinity.
8 min: A slow start from City. It will be interesting to see how Bernardo Silva and Mahrez both play in this side. Both appear to be playing on the right wing, although perhaps Bernardo Silva is tucked inside a little. The Portuguese scored a brilliant goal in the reverse fixture last month.
Brilliant @BernardoCSilva amazes against Shakhtar! ✨ #mancity pic.twitter.com/XQG98FSYiB
— Manchester City (@ManCity) November 7, 2018
6 min: Zinchenko has already played two peaches of cross-field passes to Mahrez. Ismaily, the Shakhtar left-back, twice does well to force the Algerian inside into traffic.
4 min: Robbie Savage, co-commentator on BT Sport, just called Fernandinho “under-rated.” Does anybody, anywhere, honestly not think he is one of the best players in the world in his position?
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2 min: Taison, Shakhtar’s most dangerous player, gives the ball away and is lucky not to be penalised for blocking Walker.
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Peeeeeeeeeeep! And we’re off. Bottom of Group F, Shakhtar probably have to get something here if they are to qualify. A win at the Etihad would be their first ever in England.
The teams are out. Uefa’s Champions League anthem blares out around the stadium, which is accompanied by boos.
Jeeeeeeeez.
Full-time in the early kick-offs. Valencia have moved above Manchester United with that win (for now) and Roma have gone three points clear of Real Madrid at the top of Group G (for now).
⏰ FULL TIME ⏰
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) November 7, 2018
💛 Roma claim 3rd win in 4 Group G games
🦇 Valencia move up to 2nd in Group H #UCL pic.twitter.com/iZXm9TcQuM
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.
Pep speaks! He is asked “how much is Sunday a factor in your team selection tonight?”
Zero.
Yeah, OK Pep.
If you’re interested in that Shakhtar-Dynamo game from the weekend, here are the highlights, featuring that magical 95-minute winner from Kovalenko.
Taison didn’t get on the scoresheet, but he made the first goal, and he is really the heartbeat of this Shakhtar team creatively. Do not be surprised if Fernandinho is given a man-marking job tonight on his compatriot and former team-mate.
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.
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.
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.
The teams
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)
Preamble
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/xI16ypeMRu
— Super Stadiums (@superstadiumss) November 6, 2018
If that atmosphere gives you goosebumps, it is peculiar that one of the favourites for this year’s competition, Manchester City, are struggling to create one in their stadium.
As Jamie Jackson points out, crowds for Europe are generally lower than their domestic attendances, the habit of booing the Uefa anthem has not completely died away, and Pep Guardiola has just taken part in a promotional club video aimed at encouraging supporters to feel more positive and proprietorial about European nights.
Buzzing for tonight! ⚽️ #mancity pic.twitter.com/ZlMSlrBeL9
— Manchester City (@ManCity) November 7, 2018
We saw how the atmosphere did for City at Anfield last season, and what happened to Liverpool last night at Red Star. It’s unlikely that we’ll see the same tonight at the Etihad, particularly as Guardiola will probably rest some key names before Sunday’s Manchester derby. But Shakhtar are no pushovers, and we all saw what happened in September when Lyon travelled to Manchester.
Manchester City are potentially able to qualify from Group F with a win tonight, but will know that another shock could be on the cards.
Kick-off: 8pm GMT.
