Alexander Puzik - about his impressions of being in Manchester and the situation in the city the day before and on the day of the fight.
For the fourth round match of the Champions League group stage, Miner fits, having only two points for three matches and being in the last place in his quartet. It turns out that the game against the City for Shakhtar is one of the key ones? Alas, this is too loud a statement. The current Manchester City is one of the best teams in the world (if not the best) and the current Miner can be a serious irritant for the “citizens” only with a big stretch.. On the other hand, the fact that even Ukrainian fans do not expect anything special from the Donetsk team can only play into the hands of the Orange-and-Black.. Earn points - will be heroes, lose - no one will not condemn.
Manchester immediately pleased us with its weather - we even managed to bask in the sun, which is not typical for this region.. However, this did not last long, and by the evening the wind had risen and it began to rain.. During a short walk, several things caught my eye.. The first is that the locals are absolutely not afraid of the cold, and at low temperatures they can easily walk in shorts and a T-shirt. The second is a huge number of nationalities. Finding the British was not so easy. The third is people's attitudes.. Here, no one will condemn anyone for appearance, defiant behavior, and so on..
In the evening, we traditionally visited the Miner's press conference and listened to the comments of Paulo Fonseca and Ismaily.. However, the main event of this trip was not the press conference itself (the predictable words were spoken on it), but the visit to Etihad Stadium. The arena looks majestic, and in front of the main entrance there is a large banner - a reminder of who is the reigning champion of England.. Today before the match there will be a carpet. Of course, blue.
The pre-match training session, which was open to the press for the first 15 minutes, was a little surprised by the behavior of Man City employees.. They were very careful that no one even took a step on a green lawn, and if this happened, they immediately “asked” to take a few steps back.. Later, British colleagues suggested that the club is very scrupulous in this matter and it is strictly forbidden to step on the lawn, even to employees of Man City. The exception is the agronomists who are responsible for his condition.. And another interesting fact about the stadium is that the names of all season ticket holders are imprinted on the facade of the arena..
On the day of the match, as well as the day before, there was no advertisement in the city about the upcoming match of the Champions League.. Only at the entrance to Manchester, we noticed an advertisement on an electronic billboard - on this mention of the game City vs. Miner ended. As for the local media, they also did not pay much attention to the Ukrainian team, making it clear that today the City will hold an ordinary match. But this version of the starting lineup offers a local newspaper.
The author suggests that Fonseca will release Dentinho again, but it seems that the journalist just looked at Shakhtar's last match with Dynamo and did not change anything.. We are betting on the output of Sergei Bolbat.
In a few hours we will go to the game of the youth team of Miner, which will set the tone for today's football day..
The duel between Shakhtar and Man City will take place at 22:00 Kyiv time. On football. ua will be available text online broadcast of the meeting.
Author: Alexander Puzik.