Our prediction for this Champions League match:
Stadion Wojska Polskiego in Warsaw will host Tuesday’s Champions League game between Shakhtar Donetsk and Real Madrid. The Ukrainians are eager to get their revenge on los Blancos for the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu defeat, but seeing that the match will be played on the neutral location, home win should not be considered. Viktor Kornienko remains in the recovery room, but he should be the only absentee in the home team.
Carlo Ancelotti’s troops, on the other hand, aim to keep their 100% record in Group F intact. Real Madrid are high on spirits following a hard-fought 1-0 win over their local rivals Getafe, and seeing that Karim Benzema is back to the starting XI, we are tempted to put our money on Real Madrid. Both Dani Ceballos and Thibaut Courtois are sidelined with injuries for the away team.
Highlighted Player (Oleksiy Shevchenko):
Oleksiy Shevchenko is a Ukrainian goalkeeper who was born in Dnipropetrovsk on February 24, 1992. The 188-cm tall shot-stopper played for his home-town club Inter Dnipropetrovsk during his youth career and he started his senior career at Metalurh Zaporizhya. Oleksiy Shevchenko made 13 appearances for Metalurh 2, while playing no more than 13 games for the first team.
In 2013 he moved to Dynamo Kyiv, but he was immediately sent on loan to Hoverla Uzhhorod. The Ukrainian goalkeeper played for the likes of Olimpik Donetsk, Torpedo Kutaisi and Dila Gori on loan as well before signing a contract with Zorya Luhansk in 2016.
Shevchenko made his debut for Zorya in the Ukrainian Premier League on April 10, 2016 in a 2-1 loss to Dnipro. He quickly established himself as a first-team regular at Zorya and he did well to keep ten clean sheets in 25 appearances for Zorya in the 2016/2017 Ukrainian Premier League campaign. Shevchenko received his first call-up for the Ukraine national football team in October 2016 for 2018 World Cup qualifiers against Turkey and Kosovo.
Highlighted Team (Real Madrid):
Real Madrid is a Spanish football club based in Madrid. Real Madrid participate in La Liga (Primera Division) and they have won 32 domestic titles. On the other hand, los Blancos have won 13 European Cup titles and that is the main reason why they are considered the biggest football club in the world.
Real Madrid play their home matches at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu and the capacity of the stadium is 84,454. Cristiano Ronaldo is the club’s most successful footballer in the 21st century and the Portuguese superstar has won two Golden Ball awards.
The likes of Alfredo Di Stefano, Zinedine Zidane, Raul Gonzalez Blanco, David Beckham and Iker Casillas are star players who were part of the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu outfit in the past. Real Madrid’s bitterest rivals are Barcelona, but the rivalry between local rivals Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid is big as well. Real Madrid’s home kit is white and, as a result, the team’s nickname is los Blancos (the Whites).