Ruben Amorim to take charge of Manchester City showdown as United confirm agreement | OneFootball

Manchester City and Pep Guardiola will face off against a Ruben Amorim-led Sporting Lisbon side when the two clubs meet in the UEFA Champions League next week.

The Premier League champions’ trip to the Portuguese capital will be their penultimate clash before the final international break of the calendar year, with the two clubs level on points in the Champions League table.

It will be an excellent opportunity for Manchester City to further strengthen their claim for a second European crown in the competition, following on from their success in 2023 and ahead of a mammoth run of games in the competition in December and January in particular.

But to add to complications surrounding the fixture from a Sporting perspective, the highly-successful Lisbon club have been hit with a barrage of media reports around the future of their head coach Ruben Amorim.

The 39-year-old has been formally announced as the new manager of Manchester United, just weeks after finding his name all over Portuguese newspapers in relation to potentially succeeding Pep Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium.

As highlighted by The Athletic’s Laurie Whitwell earlier this week, at a stage when Manchester United were on the verge of reaching an agreement with Sporting Lisbon over the hire of Amorim as their new head coach, a prolonged stay in Portugal was being discussed.

As part of the deal, it was clarified at the time that the 39-year-old was set to stay with Sporting for their next three games, including the UEFA Champions League meeting against Manchester City on Tuesday night in Lisbon.

And that has now been confirmed in Manchester United’s official club statement on the move of Amorim, revealing that the tactician will not begin his new role at Old Trafford until Monday 11 November.

It remains to be seen how strong Manchester City’s squad will be come the time of the game, with a long line of injury issues hampering Pep Guardiola’s selection options over the last few games, heightened by a further three to four concerns after the Cup exit to Tottenham.

Savinho’s second-half ankle injury followed a late withdrawal from Manuel Akanji in the warm-ups, whilst Josko Gvardiol was seen receiving treatment beyond the full-time whistle in North London.

Pep Guardiola also spoke during his post-match press conference of minor fitness struggles being sustained by Ruben Dias in recent games, and an update on all players discussed is likely to come on Friday afternoon.