MANCHESTER CITY progressed to the knockout stages of the Champions League following a 1-1 draw with Shakhtar on Tuesday night.

Pep Guardiola’s side also secured top spot in Group C, while in the group’s other game Atalanta secured their first win in this season’s tournament with a 2-0 defeat of Dinamo Zagreb at San Siro, meaning the three teams behind City are still fighting for the second spot in the last 16.

Shakhtar are a familiar foe for City. The two sides have met six times in just over two years, and this is the second time Shakhtar have managed to avoid defeat. They put in a good display against a home side who will hope to improve once they return to league action against Newcastle this weekend.

Shakhtar have a tradition of developing young Brazilian players, so much so that when it came to replacing long-serving manager Mircea Lucescu, they appointed Portuguese coaches Paulo Fonseca in 2016 and then the current boss Luis Castro in the summer.

19-year-old winger Tete, signed in February from Brazilian side Gremio, was lively throughout and played a part in the Shakhtar goal. He used the overlapping run of right-back Dodo who crossed for substitute Manor Solomon.

The Israeli finished well, but Castro was keen to emphasis the teamwork involved in getting such a result in a big game away from home.

“I prefer to talk not about the performance of one particular guy, but to talk about all the guys, who played excellently and attacked well,” he said.

“The substitutes came on and helped the main team, but we can’t talk just about the guy who scored. It’s important that all the guys keep progressing.”

City had taken the lead through Ilkay Gundogan who was set-up by some good hold-up play from Gabriel Jesus. With Sergio Aguero out injured, City’s own Brazilian forward will be important in their upcoming games, which Guardiola is looking forward to.

“I’ve played against Shakhtar Donetsk many times and they always have quality players,” he said. 

“In general, we created chances but the draw was enough in the end. Now we have one competition already done, and now our focus will be the Premier League. 

“The target was to qualify and we have done it.”