On Tuesday, November 3, Donetsk's Shakhtar will play a nominally home match of the fourth round of the Champions League main stage. Due to the war, the match will not take place in Ukraine, but at London's Stamford Bridge, where Arda Turan's side will face Portuguese club Sporting. The starting whistle will blow at 19:45 Kyiv time, and Slovak referee Ivan Kružliak will officiate the game. The full broadcast schedule and team lineups can be found on the Sport RBC.UA website.

The "Miners" approach the match as UPL leaders

The Donetsk club approaches the upcoming clash as the leader of the Ukrainian championship. In the last UPL round, an experimental Shakhtar lineup defeated Obolon 2:0 thanks to a brace from Brazilian Alisson. Prior to that, Turan's charges confidently knocked Kyiv's Dynamo out of the Ukrainian Cup, crushing their opponent 3:0. Thus, the team maintains a high playing tone in national tournaments as well.

Mixed results in the European campaign

In the Champions League, the Donetsk team has so far shown a contradictory picture. After an opening draw with Dutch side PSV (1:1) and a confident victory over Greek AEK (3:1) at Stamford Bridge, the team suffered a disappointing defeat to Italian side Inter (0:1), despite playing with a man advantage for almost the entire second half. Currently, the "Miners" have four points and sit 17th in the overall table. On the eve of the game, UEFA satisfied the Donetsk club's request to replace the injured Pedrinho with Prosper Obah in the squad list.

A turbulent period in Lisbon

The Ukrainian club's opponent is going through personnel upheavals. Despite having six points in the Champions League—victories over Galatasaray (3:1) and Lens (2:0) alongside a sensational home defeat to Austrian side LASK (2:3)—Sporting's management has dismissed head coach Rui Borges. In London, the team will be temporarily managed by youth team coach Tiago Fernandes while the club prepares to appoint former Shakhtar coach Paulo Fonseca.

Head-to-head history

The head-to-head statistics do not favor the "Miners" yet. In the 2008/09 season, the opponents crossed paths in the Champions League group stage, and both matches ended in 1:0 victories for the Lisbon side. Overall, Sporting has never lost to Ukrainian teams in eight encounters—seven wins and one draw, which makes the upcoming match especially motivating for Donetsk.

Broadcast and pre-match program

Exclusive broadcasting for Ukrainian viewers will be provided by the media service MEGOGO. The pre-match studio will start at 18:45: host Oleksandra Kucherenko will be joined by experts Oleh Maslyuk and Eduard Tsykhmeistruk. The match will be commented by Vadym Shevyakin and Volodymyr Kyrychenko. The match can be watched via MEGOPACK, MEGOPACK Y, and Sport subscriptions.