JOSE OUT OF LUK

PEP Guardiola believes tonight’s Champions League clash with Shakhtar is more important than Sunday’s derby.

The Blues manager has maintained he would rather win the Premier League than the Champions League because it is more difficult.

But there is less margin for error in European competition and the manager left Kevin de Bruyne, Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus, Kyle Walker and Aymeric Laporte on the bench for the derby last season when it was sandwiched between a Champions League quarter-final with Liverpool.

It shouldn’t have made a difference to the result, but a string of missed chances in an otherwise dominant first half allowed United to inflict City’s only domestic defeat at the Etihad in more than a year – and deny the Blues the chance to win the Premier League title in record time.

Guardiola appears open to prioritising European competition again, in part because it is the next game to prepare for but also because JOSE Mourinho admits he does not know if Romelu Lukaku will be fit for Sunday’s derby.

The striker has not travelled with the United squad to Turin for tonight’s Champions League group game with Juventus after he missed the Premier League win at Bournemouth on Saturday. The 25-year-old there is much more room for error remaining in the Premier League.

“Every game is important and you have to evaluate,” the manager said.

“The most important will be Shakhtar, first because it is the next one and second because it is a final.

“It is not easy to win the third and the fourth game against the same opponent in a short period.

“After dropping points against Lyon, every game is a final. We have a big chance to make an incredible step to qualify for the next round and after we think about United.” suffered a muscle injury in training on Friday and Mourinho recalled Alexis Sanchez to play up front at Bournemouth, where Marcus Rashford scored a 92nd-minute winner.

When asked whether Lukaku would return for the fixture at City on Sunday, Mourinho added: “Injured for tomorrow and we don’t know for Sunday.”

United play Juventus in their fourth Champions League group match before the weekend derby

But Mourinho dismissed the suggestion this could be a ‘defining week’ in his Reds career. “No, not at all,” he said. “It is a big match and is big enough not to think about what is next.

“It is big enough to think about just the match against Juventus.”