Preview Shakhtar Donetsk Vs Barcelona: Blaugrana Opportunity Key Phase Falls

Barcelona Lamine Yamal in training session with BARCELONA's INSTAGRAM team/INSTAGRAM

JAKARTA Barcelona will play away matches in the fourth week of the 2023/2024 European Champions League Group H phase to Shakhtar Donetsk headquarters.

The match will take place at Volkspark Stadium, Hamburg, Germany, Wednesday, November 8, 2023 at 00.45 WIB. This duel was not held at Shakhtar headquarters due to the situation in Ukraine.

This match is an opportunity for Barcelona to ensure their place in the knockout stages with two games remaining if they can avoid defeat to the home side.

The Catalan giants have performed outstanding in the group stage so far. They top the standings with nine points after winning all of the three matches they have played.

Meanwhile, Shakhtar is in third place, collecting three points from the same number of matches. They are three points behind Porto who are in second place.

Shakhtar started their group stage campaign with a 1-3 home defeat against Porto. They then came up impressively to beat Royalikarp 3-2 in the second match.

Marino Pusic's team then suffered a 1-2 defeat while traveling to Barcelona in their third match on October 26.

Shakhtar has not been eliminated from this competition if they lose against Barcelona later. However, defeat will put them in a very difficult position to penetrate the knockout stages.

Before hosting Barcelona, Shakhtar only won three times, drew five times, and lost seven home games. The record is clearly not special when they are ready to face a strong team like the Blaugrana.

Shakhtar have failed to qualify from the group stage in their last five matches in the European Champion League. However, they had a chance to finish over the Europa League.

On the other hand, Barcelona have a great chance of qualifying for the knockout stages after finishing third in the previous two seasons. They just need a draw against Shakhtar to lock in the next phase.

The La Liga champions started the group stage by beating the 5-0 win in the opener before recording a straight win over Porto and Shakhtar in the last two matches.

Barcelona lost 1-2 to Real Madrid at El Clasico at the end of last month. However, managed to record a 1-0 win over Real Sociedad in La Liga in their latest match.

Before meeting the Ukrainian team, Barcelona won seven games, one draw, and lost three in their previous 11 away games.

However, they only won in 14 chances from the last 32 away games in this competition. In that period they suffered nine defeats.

Formation Estimated

Shakhtar Donetsk (4-2-3-1): Riznyk; Konoplya, Bondar, Matvienko, Rakitskyi; Stepanenko, Bondarenko; Kryskiv, Sudakov, Zubkov; Sikan

Barcelona (3-4-3): Ter Stegen; Araujo, Kunde, Christensen; Cancelo, Gavi, Gundogan, Balde; Raphinha, Lewandowski, Felix