Last season of the Champions League “Manchester City” ended quite unexpectedly. They lost at home to Lyon (1:3). Pep Guardiola’s wards received this defeat after they won the title of vice-champion of the English Premier League and were admitted to European competitions. The start of the new league Cup championship was successful. They got victory over Bournemouth and Burnley brought the citizens to the 1/8 finals of the tournament. It is impossible not to mention the newcomers of the team who have moved to Manchester recently. Defender Ruben Diaz (68 million), Nathan Ake from Bournemouth (45.3 million) and Ferran Torres from Valencia (23 million) have moved from Benfica. The Premier League start for the Blues came out slightly crumpled. Three victories and two world victories brought the MC to an unusual 10th place. In the last round, the “sky blue” minimally defeated Sheffield United (1:0) on the road. In the Champions League group stage, the Mancunians won two victories out of two possible, namely over Porto (3:1) and Marseille (3:0) and lead Group C. It is noteworthy that the English club conceded only one goal in the tournament. Aguero, Mendy and Fernandinho will not be able to take part in today’s game. Questionable is the entry into the field of Gabriel Jesus, who has a muscle strain.
Borussia also had a great start in the Champions League. Bookmakers assigned the Germans in the group the role of an outsider. However, the Prussians earned two points in the match against Inter (2:2) and Real Madrid (2:2). Moreover, both clubs were still extremely lucky to earn credits in a duel with Marco Rosa’s charges. Real Madrid bounced in 90 + 3 minutes, whereas Inter bounced in 90 minutes. If Borussia had held out to the end, the club would have had not two points, but six. However, the statistics of M?nchengladbachs in the Champions League are not the best. The Prussians have never left the group since the tournament was renamed. Borussia is approaching the duel with Shakhtar with a five-match losing streak in the Champions League, during which the Germans drew four times. On the road in the group stage, the “Prussians” won only one victory in seven meetings. In the German Championship Borussia started winning in the last meetings after an unimportant start. In the previous two matches of the Bundesliga, the Prussians beat Mainz (3:2) away and then defeated Leipzig at home (1:0). Mamadou Ducourt, Denis Zakaria and Andreas Poulsen were injured at Borussia.
