Real Madrid will take on Shakhtar Donetsk at home in a Champions League Matchday 1 on 21th October at 04:55 pm. This match will broadcast live on BT Sport 1.
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Group stage – Group B
Real Madrid’s 2020/21 Champions League match will be against Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk at home to Alfredo Di Stefano. The Royals suffered a bitter defeat in La Liga against newly promoted Cadiz last weekend and manager Zidane is desperate for a win to forget about this unfortunate defeat.
In La Liga this season, Real Madrid had a relatively smooth start before the sixth round. Despite leaving Real Sociedad on the day of their debut, Los Blancos went on to win three in a row against Real Betis, Real Valladolid and Levante. However, Zidane’s unbeaten record was quickly interrupted when they suffered a surprise defeat to newly promoted Cadiz last weekend.
Currently, Real Madrid are ranked 3rd in La Liga standings with 10 points from 5 matches, a not too bad achievement but not to be proud of the Spanish champion.
Real Madrid will surely not be able to get the strongest squad against Shakhtar Donetsk on the day of their debut, as Hazard and Carvajal are still having to be friends with hospital beds. Besides, the current los blancos squad is not as scary as it was about three years ago, when the team claimed three consecutive Champions League titles and most of the Keys of this generation have also turned the other age in the twilight.
It can be said that Real Madrid at the moment have a slight similarities with Barcelona, as the Royals are also in the transition period between two generations and are on their way to finding themselves in the Champions League.
On the other side of the line, Shakhtar Donetsk is also one of ukraine’s most successful teams, the highest honour in European competition that they have achieved, winning the UEFA Cup (the fore currency of the Europa League) in the 2008/09 season.
In this season, Luis Castro’s army remains unbeaten in the Ukrainian league with 3 wins and 3 draws. However, Shakhtar Donetsk has never been considered a worthy opponent for Real Madrid, even the Miners will be a tiny team when compared to the position and class of the Royal Spanish team.
With the home fulcive, coach Zidane is desperate for a win on the day of his departure to quickly forget last weekend’s defeat. And the upcoming visit is expected to heal more or less for coach Luis Castro.
Surrounding informations:
– In the past, the two teams have only met twice and Real Madrid have won both of those matches
– In both real madrid victories, this team scored 4 goals against Shakhtar Donetsk
– Real Madrid have won nine of their last 10 home games
– Shakhtar Donetsk have not won their last five away matches
Predicted line-up
Real Madrid: Courtois; Nacho, Varane, Ramos, Mendy; Kroos, Casemiro, Valverde; Asensio, Benzema, Vinicius
Shakhtar Donetsk: Pyatov; Dodô, Kryvtsov, Bondar, Matviyenko; Antonio, Stepanenko; Marlos, Alan Patrick, Taison; Moraes
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