Big psychological shots will be fired when soon-to-be Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim’s Sporting Lisbon host Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the Champions League tonight at 10pm.
Come next Monday, 11 November, Amorim will be the other dikding in charge of a Premier League club in Manchester when he joins City’s local rivals United.
Before joining the Old Trafford club, though, the current Sporting Lisbon coach, 39, has a job to do. Heading into tonight’s match, the two teams have a similar record in Europe this term – both having won two of the three games played, while drawing the other one.
Sporting come off a 2-0 win over Sturm Graz, while City beat Sparta Prague 5-0 last time out.
And asked if he had any advice for Amorim after his appointment at United was made official last week, Guardiola said: “Welcome to United, to England. I [will] congratulate him [tonight]. I’m not the right person to give advice to colleagues. They have a lot of people at United who can give information about what is happening at United.”
Amorim, meanwhile, says of leaving Sporting: “There’s a time when I have to take a step forward in my career. That’s what happened...
“We still have two important games against Manchester City and Braga [in the league]...”
So who will land the first punch in the battle to be Manchester’s ultimate dikding?
We’ll find out tonight...
TONIGHT’S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FIXTURES
PSV v Girona, Slovan Bratislava v Dinamo Zagreb (both 7.45pm), Bologna v Monaco, Dortmund v Sturm Graz, Celtic v RB Leipzig, Lille v Juventus, Liverpool v Leverkusen, Real Madrid v AC Milan.
Daily Voice