Shakhtar Donetsk vs Real Madrid Betting Tips

Shakhtar are seasoned European campaigners and certainly don’t fear playing the bigger sides, especially on home soil. Their inability to play in Donetsk due to the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine hasn’t helped them much over the past couple of years but they’ve still got a pretty solid record at the temporary home in Lviv and have only lost 2 of their 8 Champions League games at the stadium.

In contrast to their opponents, they come into the game in excellent form having won their last 5 matches in all competitions, scoring a stunning 22 goals in the process. One of those matches was a 4-0 home win against Malmo in their most recent Champions League game but a poor opening to the campaign means they are highly unlikely to qualify even if they win here.

They won’t be lacking motivation though as Champions League nights against Real Madrid don’t come around all that often and if they can pick up at least a point then it would give them an excellent chance of pipping Malmo to 3rd place which would mean Europa League football in the New Year.

Real Madrid’s 4-0 home defeat to arch-rivals Barcelona on Saturday was one of the darkest moments in their recent history. It has piled the pressure on Rafa Benitez, whose side are trying to avoid a 3rd straight defeat here, having lost 3-2 at Sevilla in their previous match.

Los Blancos boss has demanded a response but with Real Madrid already through to the knock-out stage of this competition, he probably wouldn’t be devastated with a point here, which would still leave them in pole position to secure top spot in the group.

Real Madrid will be without Marcelo and Sergio Ramos for this game but could use it as another opportunity to give Karim Benzema some game time, after the clearly unfit striker returned to start against Barca in El Clasico.

This is another tough game for the Spaniards and at 10/11, Shakhtar look good value to secure a result from it. They are perhaps not quite the force they were in previous years, otherwise you might fancy them to win it outright given how poor Real have been of late.

The visitors should be able to avoid defeat and stop this mini-rot and a 1-1 draw seems a likely outcome at 6/1.