SHAKHTAR DONETSK 0, MANCHESTER CITY 3
Manchester City produced an ‘extraordinary’ performance to become the first English side to beat Shakhtar Donetsk in an away match in Ukraine in the Champions League.
Goals by David Silva, Aymeric Laporte, and Bernardo Silva capped off a dominant display in Kharkiv by a pleased Pep Guardiola with the added bonus of topping their Champions League group with 6 points after 3 games after news that Lyon had conceded an injury time equaliser in a 3-3 draw in Hoffenheim emerged.
Guardiola had earlier made four changes from the side that thrashed Burnley so comprehensively at the weekend.
Sergio Aguero, Bernardo Silva, Leroy Sane, and Vincent Kompany stepped down to the bench while Kevin De Bruyne was handed his first start of the season following a 2 month injury lay-off and was joined in the side by Nicolas Otamendi, Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling as John Stones continued at right back.
Even without Aguero in the side, City – coming into a rich vein of form with the season warming up – proved to be too much for their hosts.
The result was a performance that was a far cry from their surprise 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Lyon on September 19. The French side have since drawn their other two games against Shakhtar and now Hoffenheim to hand the initiative back to City.
David Silva opened the scoring after half an hour, volleying home his shot after hitting the post with another effort – a just reward for the sheer number of chances he created for City by the mesmeric and in-form midfielder.
Kevin De Bruyne had slotted straight back into the side and provided the ammunition for Aymeric Laporte to score City’s second goal of the night – and his first goal in the Champions League – just five minutes later.
Gabriel Jesus didn’t score on the night but will continue to win plaudits from his manager with his hard work, and it was his decoy run which drew a Shakhtar defender away allowing substitute Bernardo Silva to make it 3-0 from the edge of the area less than two minutes after coming on as a substitute for the tiring De Bruyne with City already coasting towards victory.