Pep Guardiola has claimed that his Manchester City side “are not ready” to win the Champions League. Stating that “the feeling” from the fans that the team must win the competition is missing. As City prepare to take on a tough Shakhtar side in Ukraine, Pep Guardiola has been making the headlines for his comments before the game, on the club’s chances of winning the Champions League.
In his recent interview, he said, “It is one important thing to win this kind of title, you have to be pushed.”
“Not just by the manager, by everyone surrounding Manchester City.”
He added: “And still we don’t have that feeling, the feeling that the fans are pushing that we have to win the Champions League.”
Manchester City have never made it beyond the semi-finals of Europe’s top club competition and were disappointingly knocked out in the quarter finals by Liverpool, last season.
“We are going to put in all effort to win this competition, but from what I saw last season we are not ready, that’s what I feel,” said the two time winner of the competition.
“That doesn’t mean we are not going to try.”
City currently sit in second position in Group F, having lost to Lyon in their opening game, before winning late in Hoffenheim in match round 2.
Team News:
England right-back Kyle Walker is in contention to play for City tonight, having recovered from a groin injury. Walker missed Saturday’s 5-0 drubbing of Burnley, due to the problem. However, Ilkay Gundogan and Danilo will not feature in tonight’s game. Gundogan has a hamstring injury, while Danilo injured his ankle on international duty with Brazil.
Tonight will be the third meeting between Shakhtar Donetsk and Manchester City, after the club’s met in last season’s competition.
City beat Shakhtar at the Etihad 2-0, before the Ukrainians won 2-1 on home turf. Interestingly, Shakhtar have never lost a home match against an English club – winning 5 and drawing 2. The last of those results was the 2-1 win over City last season. Although, Shakhtar manager Paulo Fonseca has claimed that their are no weak links in the Manchester City team.
Fonseca said: “We will need to pay attention to all the players in the City team. They are very strong players and any of them can give us problems.”
“We know it is going to be difficult and we will probably have to suffer a bit without the ball, but we will try to find ways to play our game and attack.”
“Our principles remain the same, no matter who we play against. It doesn’t matter who we are playing against – Manchester City or any other team.”
Match Prediction-
City will expect to win Group F but their opening day defeat to Lyon, made the task that little bit tougher. The English Champions will put themselves in a strong position in the group, though, should they win tonight after their late win over Hoffenheim last time out, thanks to a late David Silva strike.
Final Score-
Shaktar Donetsk 1-3 Manchester City
