How Manchester City could line up against Shakhtar Donetsk

Manchester City begin their 2019-20 Champions League campaign with a trip to Ukraine to take on Shakhtar Donetsk.

These two sides are meeting for the third successive time in the group stages, with the last two corresponding fixtures ending in a win apiece.

While Shakhtar have won their opening seven matches on the domestic front, City head into this contest on the back of a surprise 3-2 defeat at the hands of Norwich City.

Here, Sports Mole attempts to predict whether Pep Guardiola will make any changes in personnel or to his formation.

Out: Aymeric Laporte (knee), Leroy Sane (knee) Doubtful: Benjamin Mendy (knee)

Having witnessed his team struggle in defence at Carrow Road, Guardiola could potentially switch to a back three, with Kyle Walker moving in-field alongside John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi.

That would give Joao Cancelo - a summer signing from Juventus - an opportunity to come into the team for his full debut, having only made one cameo outing in the Premier League over the past five weeks.

Kevin De Bruyne will almost certainly return to the side, possibly at the expense of David Silva, having been partially rested at the weekend.

Gabriel Jesus and Riyad Mahrez find themselves in a similar situation, although Guardiola may wish to keep a front three of Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero.

Benjamin Mendy is also pushing for his first outing of the season after Guardiola spoke about the left-back's recent progress in his recovery from a knee injury.