Tournament's most successful side, Real Madrid start their 2020-21 Champions League campaign with a Group B home match against Shakhtar Donetsk. The clash between Spanish and Ukrainian champions can be a tricky one considering the missing personnel in both camps. But Zinedine Zidane's Los Blancos will enter the match as the favourites, as any other would be. They are the 13-time champions. (More Football News)
But the run-up to the match is dominated by Madrid's shock defeat to promoted Cadiz in La Liga, Sergio Ramos' injury and the impending El Clasico against Barcelona, who cantered to a 5-1 win against Hungarian outfit Ferencvaros early morning.
Starting XIs confirmed.
Real Madrid:
Shakhtar Donetsk:
And as it turned out, the skipper has not been named in the Madrid squad for the match. After winning a hat-trick, from 2016 and 2018, Madrid have exited the Champions League in the last-16 stage in back-to-back campaigns. So, Zidane has his task cut out.
On the other hand, Shakhtar are unbeaten in five matches -- two wins and three draws -- in their domestic competition. And Luis Castro's side beat Lviv 5-1 before leaving for Spain.
The two teams have met twice before tonight's clash, with Madrid winning on both occasions, and the aggregated scores read 8-3. So, expect more goals. This is the first meeting between in five years since Madrid won 4-3 in a thriller.
Inter Milan and Borussia Monchengladbach are the other two teams in the group.
Match details:
What: UEFA Champions League, Group B match between Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk
When: October 21 (Wednesday), 22:25 PM IST
Where: Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, Madrid, Spain
TV Listing and streaming:
Sony Ten 2/HD, SonyLiv in the Indian subcontinent;
Movistar+, Movistar Liga de Campeones, Mitele Plus in Spain;
ootballua.tv, OLL.tv, Futbol 2 in Ukraine;
BT Sport 1, BT Sport App, BTSport.com in UK;
TUDN.com, UniMas, ZonaFutbol, Univision NOW, TUDN USA, TUDNxtra, TUDN App, CBS All Access in the United States.
Likely XIs: Both sides are nursing a long list of injury and medical concerns, including COVID-19 isolation of Shakhtar duo Junior Moraes and Mykola Matviyenko.
Real Madrid: Courtois; Nacho, Varane, Militao, Mendy; Valverde, Casemiro, Kroos; Rodrygo, Jovic, Vinicius
Shakhtar Donetsk: Trubin; Dodo, Khocholava, Bondar, Korniienko; Maycon, Patrick; Marlos, Kovalenko, Taison; Dentinho.
