Shakhtar Donetsk to Begin Europa League Campaign with a Win

    Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Shakhtar Donetsk - 18/02/2021

    Shakhtar Donetsk to Begin Europa League Campaign with a Win
    17/02/21 1918

    One of the final games to be played in the Round of 32 of the Europa League takes place at the Bloomfield Stadium as Maccabi Tel Aviv host Shakhtar Donetsk.

    The hosts come into the match sitting in second place in the Ligat Ha'al while the visitors are also in second place in the Ukraine Premier League.

    Maccabi Tel Aviv have been enjoying a good run of form domestically and they have won each of their last 6 games. In fact, Maccabi Tel Aviv are undefeated in their 14 most recent matches in all competitions, including a 1-0 home victory against Sivasspor in the Europa League.

    Maccabi Tel Aviv were drawn in Group I of the Europa League this season along with Villarreal of Spain, Sivasspor of Turkey, and Qarabağ of Azerbaijan.

    It was a decent draw and gave them the opportunity of qualifying for the knockout stages, which they took by winning 3, drawing 2 and losing only one of their 6 matches.

    The only defeat came away from home against Villarreal but Maccabi Tel Aviv picked up a point against the Spanish club at home.

    Trends show Maccabi Tel Aviv are undefeated in 7 of their 8 most recent home Europa League games. However, they have failed to score more than a single goal in each of their last 4 Europa League fixtures at Bloomfield Stadium.

    Shakhtar Donetsk enter the Europa League at the Round of 32 stage having finished in third place in their Champions League group. It was an extremely tough group including Real Madrid, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and Inter Milan.

    Shakhtar Donetsk will consider themselves unlucky not to have finished in second place as they had the same number of points as Borussia Mönchengladbach but lost out due to the head-to-head record.

    However, to finish above Inter Milan was a good achievement and not only did Shakhtar Donetsk hold the Italians to two draws but they also managed to beat Real Madrid twice.

    Trends show Shakhtar Donetsk are undefeated in 5 of their 6 most recent Europa League games. They have lost only 2 of their last 9 on the road and enjoyed victories over Wolfsburg, Celta Vigo, and Braga among others.

    Team news and Maccabi Tel Aviv could be without Uros Nikolic due to a knee injury. Top scorer Yonatan Cohen is also missing, along with Eden Karzev and Eyal Golasa.

    Shakhtar Donetsk will travel without Dentinho but he is the only player unavailable to Luís Castro.

    Maccabi Tel Aviv will be delighted to participate in the knockout stages of a major European competition but they come up against a strong team.

    With two victories over Real Madrid and draws against Inter Milan in the Champions League, Shakhtar Donetsk must be the favourites to win this game and could do so by keeping a clean sheet.

    Home team
    Away team
    Probability %
    1X2
    Pred
    Correct score
    Avg. goals
    Weather conditions
    Coef.
    Score
    Live
    coef.
    UEL
    313336
    20-1
    0 - 1
    2.31
    13°
    2.57
    3.15 3.00 2.57 -1 -1 1
    FT
    0 - 2(0 - 1)
    -
    - - -

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