Shakhtar Donetsk-Lipsia is a match for the sixth day of the group stage of the Champions League and will be played on Wednesday at 18:45: statistics, likely formations, predictions, live TV and streaming
One of the most exciting challenges on this final day of the group stage is played on the neutral pitch in Warsaw, Poland, between Ukrainians Shakhtar Donetsk and Leipzig. In a group that will most likely be won by reigning European champions Real Madrid – the Blancos only need to beat bottom-of-the-table Celtic, who are already out of the running – the second place, and thus qualification for the round of 16, is up for grabs in the final 90 minutes. The best placed team is certainly the German side – in theory still in the running for first place – who now have a three-point lead (9) over the Orange (6) and can even afford to draw to qualify for the knockout phase.
Shakhtar, on the other hand, have only one result at their disposal, victory, to avert relegation to the Europa League, by virtue of their 1-4 victory in the first leg in Germany. With equal points, in fact, the first discriminating factor is the direct clashes and the Ukrainian club, with two wins out of two, would prevail over the Roten Bullen. Since the September meeting, however, several things have changed. Leipzig have started running again with the arrival of the new coach, Marco Rose, and come from nine positive results. Nkunku and his team-mates even had the satisfaction of inflicting their first defeat of the season on Real Madrid (3-2) last week, and in the Bundesliga, thanks to a 2-0 win against Bayer Leverkusen, they are back in the race for fourth place.
The team coached by Igor Jovicevic, on the other hand, has not won in the Champions League since that surprising 1-4, collecting three draws and one defeat. In the Ukrainian league they are still second, five points behind Dnipro-1, and last weekend, perhaps distracted by the match against Leipzig, they were stopped 2-2 by Oleksandria. Jovicevic will not be able to count on the absent Shved and Zubkov in this match, while Leipzig will also be without the injured Klostermann and Laimer, as well as starting goalkeeper Gulacsi.
Marco Rose
The Prediction
Leipzig are a different team with Rose at the helm and should at least manage to avoid defeat, thus extinguishing the Orange’s ambitions. In any case, a goal-rich contest looms, with both teams scoring. Shakhtar, in fact, will not be able to just manage, being forced to win to pass the round. And the Germans have quality players (Nkunku and Werner above all) who can hurt on the counter-attack.
The likely line-up for Shakhtar Donetsk-Lipsia
- SHAKHTAR DONETSK (4-3-3): Trubin; Mykhaylichenko, Matviyenko, Bondar, Taylor; Stepanenko, Bondarenko, Sudakov; Petriak, Mudryk, Traoré.
- LIPSIA (4-2-2): Blaswich; Simakan, Gvardiol, Orbán, Raum; Schlager, Haidara; Szoboszlai, Werner; Nkunku, André Silva.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-2
