Preview

October 23, Kharkiv, OSK Metalist, 22:00
Live broadcast on Futbol 1 TV channel
 
Before the match
 
After 2 rounds, the Group F looks balanced, with every team having a chance of making it to the Last 16. Lyon are in the top position (4 points), followed by Manchester City after their success in Germany (3). Shakhtar have 2 points after 2 draws, with Hoffenheim sitting bottom of the group (1).
 
On Friday, Paulo Fonseca’s outfit clinched a hard-fought and important victory over Desna in the Premier League: Maycon's late goal was decisive. Now, the players are fully focussed on the Champions League super game. The Ukrainian champions are facing one of Europe’s strongest clubs.
 
On the game’s eve, the Orange-and-Blacks held a traditional open training session on the Sviatoshyn facility pitch, which involved tactical exercises and set play practice. Taison, Marlos and Ivan Ordets will not take part in the game due to injuries.

Olarenwaju Kayode, Fernandinho and Oleksandr Zinchenko will meet with their former clubs.
 
Opponents
 
Manchester City are the current English champions, who have scored a record 100 points last season in the Premier League. The Citizens’ major summer acquisition is the Algerian Riyad Mahrez, costing the club over 60 million pounds sterling. At the same time, the Sky Blues did without any losses and retained the major players on the roster.
 
Josep Guardiola’s men started the new season with winning a trophy through defeating Chelsea in the Super Cup (2-0), enjoying an unbeaten EPL run to date. Besides being tied with Wolverhampton and Liverpool, the Miners’ opponents claimed 7 victories, including 4 major wins (over Huddersfield, Fulham, Cardiff and Burnley).
 
On the UEFA Champions League Group Stage matchday one, the Manchester side unexpectedly suffered a home defeat at Lyon (1-2) after conceding two first-half goals. In the next match, the Englishmen defeated Hoffenheim with the same score, still being considered as the favourites.
 
21 footballers went to Kharkiv with Josep Guardiola. The player list does not feature Danilo, Eliaquim Mangala, Fabian Delph and Ilkay Gundogan.
 
Head-to-head record
 
Last season, the teams met on two occasions. Man. City proved stronger at home through the goals by Kevin de Bruyne and Raheem Sterling; in Kharkiv, Shakhtar took revenge winning 2-1 and qualifying from the group.
 
Previous match
 
On December 6, 2017, in the final round, Shakhtar needed at least a draw to make it to the knockout stages. The hosts delivered a powerful first-half performance and scored two goals: Bernard netted a stunner in the 26th minute, with Ismaily beating Ederson shortly afterwards, making it 2-0. After the break, Taison could make the score bigger, but City increased the pressure in late stages and earned a spot kick, which was successfully converted by Aguero. We want to add that from Shakhtar’s December line-up, only Pyatov, Butko, Rakits’kyy, Ismaily and Stepanenko may appear in Tuesday’s game.