Team news
Hello and welcome to our liveblog for Manchester City’s first European action of the season as they take on regular opponents Shakhtar Donetsk in that Champions League match you’ve seen many times before.
The Champions League is, of course, the big prize that City are desperate to win but injuries to key defenders could prove problematic as they start this campaign. John Stones is injured, Aymeric Laporte is injured, Nicolas Otamendi is Nicolas Otamendi … we may well see Fernandinho as a center-back this evening, or even one of City’s youth academy graduates. Imagine that.
The teams are in and it turns out that it is Fernandinho who gets the nod and also captains the side.
That’s a pretty standard 4-3-3 from City and one that would almost certainly have featured Phil Foden if he hadn’t come down with a stomach bug that has forced him to miss the match. Gabriel Jesus is in for Sergio Aguero, Riyad Mahrez for Bernardo Silva and everything else is as it was in the defeat to Norwich.
If City turn up tonight it should be a comfortable multi-goal win and after the poor performance in that game on the weekend, you’d expect much better this evening.
Kick off is 8pm and you can follow all the action with us here.
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