It’s the second leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final between Shakhtar Donetsk and FC Barcelona, and to be honest there’s probably not much point playing this one. In the first leg at the Camp Nou, Shakhtar got that vital away goal, but they also contrived to concede five to the Catalans, and so they either need to win by five goals or more or to beat Pep Guardiola’s side 4-0.
Preview: Shakhtar Donetsk Vs. FC Barcelona, 2011 UEFA Champions League
Frankly, that’s not happening. You could play the match one million times and Shakhtar might win by enough to go through once. If the game last week had been 4-2 (which would have been much fairer on Mircea Lucescu’s side), then we’d be looking at a contest - Shakhtar are a legitimately great side at home and it definitely wouldn’t be beyond them to beat Barcelona in Donetsk, but by five goals? Not happening.
With the contest already over, any sort of tactical preview seems silly from Barcelona’s perspective. Dani Alves was the main attacking threat for the Spanish giants last time, primarily because Willian more or less refused to track him as he made runs from deep. The whole team seemed more or less incapable of dealing with the deep runs Barcelona produced, actually, which made stopping them from scoring rather difficult.
At least Shakhtar looked good on the attack. If not for the wastefulness of Luiz Adriano up front they could have easily scored a few more times, which would have made this upcoming match a little more interesting. As it is, don’t expect too much in the way of excitement.
Injuries and Suspensions
Carlos Puyol is still out, as is Eric Abidal, so expect to see a centre back pairing of Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique from Barcelona. Bojan has also been lost for the rest of the season with a knee injury. Andres Iniesta is suspended for yellow card accumulation, which probably means both Seydou Keita and Pedro in the starting lineup, and Guardiola way choose to keep superstars David Villa and Lionel Messi in reserve as well.
Shakhtar are missing some vital players, including 75% of their first-choice defensive line. Right back and captain Dario Srna is missing with a thigh injury, while Dmytro Chygrynskiy is also out and left-back Razvan Rat is suspended after picking up a booking at the Camp Nou.
Time
First leg: 7:45 PM GMT (2:45 PM EST), Tuesday April 12th.
Expected Lineups
Barcelona (4-3-3): Victor Valdes; Adriano, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique, Dani Alves; Javier Mascherano, Xavi, Seydou Keita; Ibrahim Afellay, David Villa, Pedro.
Shakhtar Donetsk (4-2-3-1): Andriy Pyatov; Vyacheslav Shevchuk, Yaroslav Rakitskiy, Mykola Ischenko, Vasyl Kobin; Tomas Hubschman, Henrikh Mkhitaryan; Willian, Jadson, Douglas Costa; Luiz Adriano.
Pick
I just can’t see either team being particularly up for this. Barcelona will do enough to ensure that there’s no chance of a comeback, and I don’t think Shakhtar will be willing to just keep hurling themselves at the visiting defence. Both sides have more important matches to play coming, up, and the hosts will do enough to exit the competition with their dignity intact. 2-2 Draw; Barcelona win 7-3 on aggregate.
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