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The UEFA Champions League group stage draw procedure will take place today at 18:00 Kiev time in Geneva, Switzerland. Based on their results, Ukraine’s champion and vice-champion Shakhtar and Dynamo, respectively, will recognize their opponents.
Previously, the 32 participating teams had already been divided by UEFA into four baskets, and now we will talk about three tie options for the Pitmen: good, neutral and bad. Naturally, there will be quite a bit of convention in all this, but this in no way prevents us from trying to assess the situation in the most objective way possible.
Just remember that Shakhtar and Dynamo, despite being placed in different baskets, will not be able to play each other in the same group, as UEFA is separating teams from the same federation at this stage of the competition. In addition, neither Pitmen nor Dynamo will face teams from Russia (this time there are three at the same time: Zenit in the first basket, Krasnodar in the third and Lokomotiv in the fourth).
Option number 1 is good: Porto, Shakhtar, Olympiacos, Midtjylland
Let’s make a reservation right away that Shakhtar shouldn’t expect frankly weak opponents in the Champions League group stage, but with good variation, there are still teams with which, purely nominally, the Pitmen will have more chances.
From the first basket, first of all, we are talking about Porto. The Portuguese champion is a very powerful and ambitious team, however, for objective reasons, it now by no means belongs to the cohort of continental giants. On paper, the Dragons don’t look stronger than Shakhtar, especially since even the club’s rating is rated worse than the Pitmen’s (75.0 vs. 85.0). Porto won the last Portuguese championship not only thanks to their own game stability, but also because of the sudden slippage at Benfica. As a reminder, Shakhtar managed to reach the 1/16 finals of the 2019/20 UEFA Europa League and therefore it would probably be useful for the Pitmen to try their luck with another Portuguese ambassador who is already in the group stage of the Champions League. …
In the third basket, the most desirable option is, of course, the Olympiacos option. The multiple champion of Greece is a proven European Cup fighter, but it won’t work to call him successful in this context, even with all his heart. The rojiblancos are capable of “drinking blood” from any opponent, but with the aim of getting out of the group … Perhaps, this is too ambitious a task for them today. For example, in the last draw of the Champions League, Olympiacos finished third in the group with Bayern Munich, Tottenham and Crvena Zvezda, having managed to take only 4 points won in their field thanks to a draw with Spurs (2: 2) and minimal victory over the Serbs (1: 0).
Picking Midtjylland from the fourth basket also makes sense. First, Danish plenipotentiaries are often rare guests in the Champions League group, and the reigning champion of this country, Midtjylland, will debut at a similar level. The last four seasons have ended for Wolves with qualifying failures for the Champions League and Europa League. The last time Midtjylland played in the European cup group in the 2015/16 season, but then made it to the playoffs, where they immediately lost to Manchester United. For Shakhtar, a European Cup fighter as inexperienced as the Danish wolves is a notorious “sweet bread”, of which, with the right attitude, it is necessary to score all six points without any special nerves.
PS Speaking of such a nominally good variation, memories of Shakhtar’s 2010/11 Champions League campaign, when the Donetsk team finished in the same group with Porto, Zenit and Cyprus APOEL, immediately spring to mind. Unfortunately, that was the end of the Pitmen’s path in European competition, which once again underscores the profound theoretical nature of all the pre-match and draw assumptions …
Option number 2 – bad: Bayern, Shakhtar, Inter, Rennes
There are not so many options for the Pitmen to fall into the unequivocal “group of death”, because the Ukrainian champion will be himself in the second basket, so he will avoid encounters at this stage, for example, with Barcelona or Manchester. City. ”However, in certain situations, Shakhtar can end up in an extremely unpleasant quartet, one of whose versions we present as a nominally bad variation.
In the first basket there are many giants and very strong teams, but now, of course, Bayern stands out. The current trophy winner, who easily beat Barcelona 8: 2 in the quarter-finals, is seen by bookmakers as one of the main contenders for victory in the 2020/21 season. Munich is a cold-blooded machine that never tires and does not rest on its laurels. The Pitmen could feel it in their own skin in the 2014/15 Champions League, when they were mercilessly defeated by their opponents with a score (0: 7), even if they played the vast majority of the time in the minority due to the early expulsion of Kucher. None of the Shakhtar fans would like to experience such a thing and therefore it is best to skip visiting the Allianz Arena.
The Pitmen consider Inter the most unpleasant opponent in the third basket. With the Milan team, Shakhtar had the “pleasure” of meeting in the semifinals of the last Europa League, and then, we remember, it all ended very sad for the Ukrainian team – 0: 5. Nerazzurri coach Antonio Conte cannot take him away the ability to tactically dismount an opponent “by the bones”, and that is why Luis Castro, perhaps, would like to take revenge, but it is unlikely that the Portuguese specialist will care if fate this time divorces his Interom team to different groups.
Finally, in the fourth basket, perhaps the most difficult opponent for Shakhtar, is the debut of the Rennes tournament (Borussia de Mönchengladbach theoretically cannot be caught by the Pitmen if Bayern fall from the first basket and Marseille looks more powerful his compatriots purely nominally). In the last draw of the French Ligue 1, the ‘rojinegros’ finished third, being only one of the three teams that managed to beat Paris Saint-Germain. In addition, in the 2020/21 season, Rennes has started well, and so far this team is the leader of the standings, ahead of the current champion by 4 points. Yes, Shakhtar played successfully for the Bretons in the UEFA Cup (in 2005, the Pitmen beat Rennes 1-0 with a penalty goal from Elano), but that was a completely different team, where at least not There were stars of the first order like the recent and sensational debut of the French team, Edouardo Camavinghi, 17, for whom many greats of continental football are willing to pay more than 60 million euros.
Option number 3 – neutral: Juventus, Shakhtar, Salzburg, Istanbul Bashakshehir
Perhaps, a group with such a selection of opponents would be the most, as they say in such cases, working option for the Pitmen. Somehow it would be useless to do without grants (you have to tune in with someone with the highest level of concentration possible), but even without teams of a nominally lower level, I would not like to see the selection of the members of the quartet.
From the first basket it would be good to play against Juventus again. In 2012, the Pitmen managed to properly oppose the Turin team, along with which Shakhtar reached the 2012/13 Champions League playoffs. The current Old Lady is hardly weaker than the one she was at the time of the previous meeting with the Ukrainians, but she can be played with, in addition to achieving the result, as former Pitmen coach Paulo Fonseca recently demonstrated, when with His Roma played against Juve in a 2: 2 draw in the league. In the end, Ukraine may have one of the last chances to see the megastar of our time Cristiano Ronaldo in the case, because who knows how long the Portuguese will hold out before retiring …
The functional version of the third basket is Salzburg. The defending champion of Austria is a team that will definitely not be easy for the Pitmen, but this matchup is definitely capable of providing interesting football and points for Shakhtar. In the last Champions League draw, Salzburg scored 7 points in the group with Liverpool, Napoli and Genk, finishing third behind the British and Italians. Furthermore, in Foggy Albion, the Austrians scored three goals against the Reds, losing 3: 4 in a joyous penalty shootout. Seeing such a team among Shakhtar’s rivals this time would be good for everyone who loves bright and dynamic football.
But from the fourth basket it would be nice to see Turkey’s plenipotentiary “Istanbul Bashakshehir”, so that the Shakhtar group was truly a champion. Last season, this team took the “gold” of the national championship for the first time in history, and therefore went directly to the Champions League, and this will be its debut. The current “Istanbul Bashakshehir” is a very ambitious team, which is nevertheless distinguished by a certain instability. This team did not start well in the 2020/21 season in the Turkish Super League, having lost the opening three fights and now occupying last place in the table. As for the fact that Istanbul Basaksehir will try to catch up in the Turkish league, it will be very difficult for this team in the Champions League, which Shakhtar can take advantage of. Yes, and a banal short haul flight within today’s reality is something the Pitmen camp would probably be very happy with as well.
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