Live on Skysports 4: Tue 19.45: Barcelona are all but through in the Champions League so Shakhtar will be looking to restore some pride.
Nursing a 5-1 hammering at the Nou Camp, Shakhtar look very unlikely to progress to the semi’s of this year’s Champions League at a whopping 66/1 with bet365.
Seven years ago, the two teams met in the group stages and with Barcelona through, they fell to a 2-0 defeat away in Donetsk – a repeat of that result is 16/1 with Sportingbet.
A win will mean a great deal more to the home team, 23/10 with Ladbrokes, as they aim to make the aggregate score look a little less lop-sided while Barcelona arrive as 5/4 favs with Skybet.
With a four-goal aggregate lead, a grinding win against Almeria, the suspension of Iniesta and, most importantly, El Clasico approaching at the weekend, it’s fair to assume Barcelona will take their foot off the pedal somewhat and Barca backers should be very wary.
With such natural quality, it’s hard to firmly say Shakhtar will beat Barcelona, whatever the distractions, but a draw or better is not beyond the Ukrainians at 8/13 (Stan James), while a victory for Donetsk is 11/8 (Paddy Power) with a refund for a drawn result.
This all ties in nicely with the fact Shakhtar have a 100% record in this year’s competition at home, conceding just once, so the brave could back Donetsk to win by a one goal margin at 9/2 (bet365) with Eduardo an 11/5 chance with Coral to score anytime. Boylesports have 6/4 about the home team scoring twice or more.
Unbelievably, Shakhtar lost their first home game at the weekend since October 2008 but that can be ignored as anomaly and only one team have scored twice since Barcelona did 30 months ago. It’ll be tight but side with Shakhtar.
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