Shakhtar Donetsk take on the visitors Marseille in the first leg of UEFA Europa League 1/16-finals. The match will be played on Thursday, February 15th at Volksparkstadion (Hamburg).
Shakhtar (Donetsk) are determined to showcase themselves well. The Miners pleasantly surprised last season. Then the team managed to secure the 3rd place in their Champions League group, fighting until the last moment for the playoffs – this despite the fact that Jovichevich had to rebuild the squad largely from scratch due to the departure, with few exceptions, of all the star foreign players. However, Igor was not forgiven for the failure against Feyenoord in the Europa League. And when they quickly became disappointed in his successor, Van Leuven, they invited a relatively unknown specialist from the Netherlands, Pushich. The Bosnian immediately showed his class – under him they defeated Barcelona, and then Antwerp, reviving the chances for the final 2nd place and advancing to the Champions League playoffs. But still, Porto proved stronger, as evidenced by the 6th-round match. Well, now the orange-black will fight for the maximum result in the Europa League. To do this, they retained Sudakov, renewing the contract with their main asset, and acquired a couple of promising Brazilians (Marlon Gomes, although injured, will miss up to a month) and arranged for the return of Pedrinho.
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Marseille have looked decent in recent years – for example, last season they finished third in Ligue 1. However, in the summer, they changed coaches once again at the Velodrome, possibly provoking the fans. After the first setbacks, fan protests led to the dismissal of Marcelino. His replacement, Gattuso, felt more comfortable, but it cannot be said that the play of Olympique improved significantly. And in the middle of winter, there was a blatantly unsuccessful period, with a series of dropped points in Ligue 1 and elimination from the cup after a mishap against Rennes, whom they lost to in a penalty shootout. When they lost to the survival fighter, Lyon, the fans reminded everyone of their presence by coming for what they called a final peaceful conversation with the management of Marseille and the players. However, Gennaro, or rather his family, is currently facing serious problems with the Calabrian mafia, and it is not certain that he can easily focus on the game.
The Ukrainians have already played against these Frenchmen – a decade and a half ago, in 2009. Then the Miners won both playoff matches, which became a step towards their main triumph: eventually winning the UEFA Cup. The orange-black team is not trusted, although they have shown excellent results several times. Here we bet on the nominal hosts with a handicap of 0.
Prediction for the match: Shakhtar to win with 0.0 handicap.
