Man City vs Shakhtar Donetsk preview

Team news, stats and prediction as Manchester City face Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League.

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Team news

Manchester City record goalscorer Sergio Aguero will miss Tuesday's Champions League clash with Shakhtar Donetsk at the Etihad Stadium with a thigh injury.

The Argentina striker limped out of Saturday's victory over Chelsea and joins left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko, Aymeric Laporte and Leroy Sane (all knee) on the sidelines.

Spanish midfielders David Silva and Rodri are fit after suffering cramp at the weekend and veteran goalkeeper Scott Carson will be on the bench with Claudio Bravo suspended.

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State of play

Manchester City will be through to the knockout stage if they avoid defeat against Shakhtar - or if Dinamo Zagreb do not beat Atalanta.

City will be confirmed in first place if they win, or if they draw and Dinamo do not win.

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Opta stats

• Manchester City have won four of their five UEFA Champions League encounters with Shakhtar Donetsk (L1), keeping a clean sheet in each victory.
• Manchester City have lost only one of their last 13 home group stage games in the UEFA Champions League (W11 D1 L1) - winning each of the last four in a row, including a 6-0 victory against Shakhtar Donetsk in November 2018.
• Shakhtar Donetsk are unbeaten in their last three away UEFA Champions League matches (W2 D1 L0) - they have never gone four in a row without defeat on the road in the competition.
• Man City have won their last six home UEFA Champions League games, the longest current run of any side. The last English side to have a longer run were Chelsea, who won seven in a row at Stamford Bridge between March 2008 and February 2009.
• Shakhtar scored twice in the 90th minute of their 3-3 draw with Dinamo Zagreb on MD4, becoming only the third team to do so in an away UEFA Champions League game, along with Ajax at Thun in November 2005 and Spurs at Inter Milan in October 2010.
• Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has won nine of his 12 matches against Shakhtar Donetsk in all competitions as manager (W9 D1 L2) - he's won more games against the Ukrainian side than he has versus any other in European competition.
• Shakhtar Donetsk's Taison has carried the ball a competition-high 1,811 metres so far in the 2019-20 UEFA Champions League, with 1,049 of these metres seeing him make progress upfield (another competition-high in 2019-20).
• Manchester City's Riyad Mahrez has been directly involved in more Champions League goals versus Shakhtar Donetsk than he has against any other team in the competition (2 goals, 4 assists).
• Raheem Sterling has found the back of the net in both of his Champions League appearances against Shakhtar Donetsk at the Etihad, netting in September 2017 and November 2018.

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Charlie's prediction

I feel there are still problems at the back for City. You could see that against Chelsea, but what a fabulous game of football. I kept seeing Riyad Mahrez and he was great - why did Pep Guardiola not take him off the bench at Anfield and let him run at Andy Robertson? Against Chelsea, he kept going back and back - why did he not take anyone on? He did it on one occasion and scored, taking on two players. I know Pep wants his players to pass it and go into the different sections, but Mahrez is a wide man. You don't take that out of Raheem Sterling - that's what we love about him. I don't know if he has been brainwashed into the stats and the fact that he cannot give the ball away.

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The Sergio Aguero injury will concern everyone, but I think Gabriel Jesus is probably ready to come into the team anyway. They will miss the quality of Aguero, but I don't see any danger here. I have gone with 3-1 because there are still some frailties at the back. City could play Claudio Bravo as Ederson looked a tad rusty against Chelsea, so it could give him a bit more time to recover. They win this and they win the group, and then they can rest even more bodies in the last game, and that's where this is going.

CHARLIE PREDICTS: 3-1 (9/1 with Sky Bet)

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