Champions League - Shaktar Donetsk v Barcelona

Shaktar Donetsk take on giants FC Barcelona tonight.

Shaktar are having one of their worst starts in the local championship, with 9 points from 9 games and a 1-6-2 record. But at least 4 of those negative results were obtained due to huge bad luck, as happened in the last game against Metalurg, where they scored first, dominated the game and missed several good chances, but got equalized in the 93rd minute, which proved to be extremely disappoiting and created a lot of pressure. Nevertheless, there is time for them to recover, but this season, even from the preparation matches, for Shaktar the target was passing the CL Group Stages. And they have a big chance this season, considering they will play with Basel and Sporting in the group, two teams that should not pose a lot of problems for the Ukraineans. An easy 2-1 win at Basel in the first game set them off nicely, while Barca's home win over Sporting was right in the graph, as Shaktar need the second place only, and they would enjoy Barca beating Basen and Sporting home and away in order to give them more chances. Shaktar have shown their offensive qualities in most of their games, but in the local league, the bottom and middle table teams defend with 10 men when playing against them, and this requaires a lot of energy trying to block those defensive systems. So far they have rather failed, but against Barca, a team that likes to dominate and put pressure, they will get their chances on counters without a doubt. I don't really see Shaktar not scoring tonight.

Barcelona have started the season in Premiera rather badly, mainly due to a lot of bad luck. They dominated all of their opponents, except Betis who should have taken a points at least against them, but got equalized in the dying minutes. Barca are 3 points from the top at the moment, and with Henry, Eto'o and Messi up top and a strond midfield to back them, they surely can create at least 10 chances per game, if the opponent doesn't defend 100%. Barca defeated Sporting by 3-1, in a match that they did not push too much, asthey made it look easy. Shaktar are a different matter now. They play away in Ukraine, where the temperature is a bit lower and the pitch is a bit more difficult, so they will need more energy than in a normal match. But thanks to their passing game, they can run all 90 minutes without problems, so i can see here Barca putting pressure again on the hosts.

Shaktar have some problems in their central defense, as some unexperienced players will have to step in and play. Against Messi and Eto'o, a team cannot afford playing with unexperienced players, but this is it and they will have to step up.

I see an open match developing here, with at least 2 goals scored form Barca. Also, Shaktar should score at least once in my opinion, so i would like to go for over 2.5 and some correct scores here. Good luck.

7 units on over 2.5 goals @ 1.83 with Betfred

1 unit on CS 1-3 @ 16.1 with 10Bet

1 unit on CS 2-2 @ 19.05 with 10Bet

1 unit on CS 2-3 @ 34 with Eurobet

Pick : several picks
Odds : 1.56
Stake : 5 / 10
Bookmaker : BetFred
Match Result :
Tipster Personal Link/Sponsor:

 Liked this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and get loads more!