Manchester City will come up against some familiar foes in the Champions League this season after the group stage draw was made yesterday.
With the teams being drawn in descending order of seeding, the Premier League champions discovered their Pot 2 opponents first and were drawn against Shakhtar Donetsk, as noted by Manchester City’s official Twitter channel @ManCity during their live updates of the draw.
The first team to join us in Group C, @FCShakhtar pic.twitter.com/MM8HyfF9xg
— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 29, 2019
Pep Guardiola’s team were subsequently joined in Group C by Dinamo Zagreb and Atalanta, the latter making their first appearance in the group stage of the competition.
By contrast, Manchester City are becoming quite accustomed to facing Ukrainian champions Shakhtar, having met them in the Champions League group stage in each of the last two seasons.
In 2017/18, the Premier League side enjoyed a 2-0 win over Shakhtar at the Etihad Stadium before an inconsequential 2-1 defeat in Ukraine at the end of the group stage.
Last season, Guardiola’s men had two comprehensive victories against the Ukrainian side, winning 3-0 away and then romping to a 6-0 triumph at the Etihad.
Despite their good record against Shakhtar, these Manchester City fans on Twitter were not enthused about meeting the Ukrainian club for a third Champions League campaign in a row:
https://twitter.com/VISHSAI/status/1167115206708776960
https://twitter.com/jacobpowles20/status/1167114861756768258
How many times
— Dhiren Kanted (@dk_constant) August 29, 2019
How many times are we going to draw these guys!!
— brayan (@segurabrayan08) August 29, 2019
https://twitter.com/SimmosLeftPeg/status/1167116244815925248
Death, taxes and City playing Shakhtar in the group stage
— Creed (@FPL_Creed) August 29, 2019
https://twitter.com/screebs69/status/1167114797600661509
Manchester City fans, what did you think of yesterday’s draw and how far do you think you can go in the Champions League this season? Give us your views by commenting below!
