Shamrock Rovers vs Shakhtar Donetsk Predictions

• Shamrock Rovers have lost five of their last eight games.
• Shakhtar Donetsk have won five of their last six outings.
• Shakthar have scored 23 times in their last six matches.

High-scoring win for visitors fancied

Shamrock Rovers pulled off a major shock when holding AEK Athens to a draw in their last Conference League game but they look unlikely to repeat the trick when they host Shakhtar Donetsk on Thursday.

The Irish side had lost their first two games 4-1 to Sparta Prague and 2-0 to NK Celje before their shock stalemate in Greece, where they allowed 3.7 expected goals and 29 shots in a 1-1 draw.

They face a Shakhtar team who have won two of their three Conference League games and have only been defeated once in 90 minutes in their 11 European matches this term.

A 2-1 defeat to Legia Warsaw is the only blot on the visitors’ copybook and they promptly bounced back with a 2-0 win over Breidablik.

Shakhtar have been in fine form domestically too, they currently top the Ukrainian Premier League and have won five of their last six games in all competitions, scoring 23 goals in the process.
Rovers have not played since their FAI Cup win over Cork more than two weeks ago and may be ring rusty, it’s worth taking the away team to win a game which also produces over 2.5 goals.

The hosts have scored twice in three games and could get on the scoresheet, a 3-1 victory for Shakhtar is fancied.