Manchester City host Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday night in what will be the respective clubs fourth Champions League Group F tie of the competition. And as ever, the opposing manager will do their best in figuring out how their team will stop Pep Guardiola’s side.
A couple of weeks ago City came away from Ukraine 3-0 winners and with just one win away from reaching the knockout stages City will, as ever be up for the challenge.
Wednesday 7 November 2018
Manchester City vs. Shakhtar Donetsk
Etihad Stadium
Kick-off – 8 pm GMT
Live on TV within the UK on BT Sport
Match officials come from Hungary
Referee – Viktor Kassai
Assistants – György Ring and Vencel Tóth
Fourth official – Peter Berettyán
Additional assistant referees – Tamás Bognar and Sandor Szabo
Senior ESPN writer Gabriele Marcotti spoke to the 45-year-old Shakhtar Donetsk boss Paulo Fonseca before tomorrow evenings game and asked him a few questions.
On City’s strengths…
“When they have the ball, they keep it exceptionally well. And they have so much quality. If you press them high, they have the quality at the back — including the goalkeeper — to simply pass the ball through your press.
“Or they can also go long, and in players like [Leroy] Sane and [Raheem] Sterling, they have very fast players. So you have to find another way to defend.”
On how to defend against City…
“The basic philosophy is to keep our team high up the pitch but also very compact. I want the distance from my last defender to my furthest forward attacker to be short, and also the distance from one wing to the other. The idea is to be high and narrow, therefore compact, with a lot of density. That makes it more difficult for them to pass through us.
“At the same time, without pressing high and losing our shape, we need to ensure they don’t go deep because, as I said, they have a lot of quality and speed there.”
The full Q&A interview can be found if you click/tap here.
Come on CITY!