Big psychological blows will be fired when future Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim’s Sporting Lisbon host Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the Champions League this evening at 10 p.m.

Come next Monday, November 11, Amorim will be the other dikding in charge of a Premier League club in Manchester when he joined local rivals United.

But before joining the Old Trafford club, the current coach of Sporting Lisbon, 39, has his work cut out for him. Heading into tonight’s match, both teams have a similar record in Europe this season: both have won two of the three matches played and drawn the other.

Sporting secured a 2-0 victory over Sturm Graz, while City beat Sparta Prague 5-0 last time out.

And when asked if he had any advice for Amorim after his United appointment was made official last week, Guardiola replied: “Welcome to United, to England. I will congratulate (him) (tonight). I am not the right person to give advice to colleagues. There are a lot of people at United who can give information about what’s going on at United. »

Amorim, meanwhile, said of his departure from Sporting: “There is a moment when I have to take a step forward in my career. This is what happened…

“We still have two important games against Manchester City and Braga (in the league)…”

So who will throw the first punch in the battle to become Manchester’s ultimate dikding?

We’ll find out tonight…

TONIGHT’S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE JOINTS

PSV v Girona, Slovan Bratislava v Dinamo Zagreb (both 7:45 p.m.), Bologna v Monaco, Dortmund v Sturm Graz, Celtic v RB Leipzig, Lille v Juventus, Liverpool v Leverkusen, Real Madrid v AC Milan.