Shakhtar Donetsk take on the visitors Rennes in the first leg of UEFA Europa League 1/16-final round. The match will be played on Thursday, February 16th at Stadion Wojska Polskiego (Warsaw).
Shakhtar were forced to change last year. For a long time, they relied on the “cultivation” of promising players from Brazil. But since the fighting intensified last spring, almost everyone left except for Traore and Srna, a local legend who became sports director. There is no longer De Zerbi, who coaches, and successfully, “Brighton”. The Orange-and-Blacks had to rebuild their squad and change their approaches. Against this background, performances in the Champions League in the autumn must be recognized as successful. Here is a crushing victory over RB Leptzig, and draws with Celtic, and a worthy fight with Real Madrid, which was rightly rewarded with 3rd place and the opportunity to continue playing, but already within the Europa League. True, the brightest performer, young Mudrik, is already at Chelsea - Shakhtar did the best thing, letting go of the star, but for a considerable 70 million (with the prospect of growth by another 30). There is also a traditional problem: as always in February, the Ukrainians start the playoffs without practice.
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Rennes in recent years have returned to the ranks, if not of the giants of French football, but of teams from the group of local leaders. They took the cup in 2019, the first serious trophy in a long time, the following year they showed their peak in the form of Ligue 1 bronze - this even allowed them to debut in the Champions League. So far, it has not been possible to repeat this, including with the current mentor, Genesio. But last season Bruno was able to reach the 4th final place with his charges - a good result. And now there are chances to repeat it, although not everything works out. There are too many defeats in the winter - they lost to Marseille in the cup, and in the championship there were failures with Clermon, Lorient, Lille, and in the last round it was 1-3 with Toulouse. At the same time, in the Europa League, Rennes was not bad in the fall. In the company of AEK from Larnaca, Fenerbahce and Dynamo Kyiv, Rennes haven’t lost, however, they took 2 out of 3 of victories just with the Ukrainians.
Only once, in 2005, did the sides cross paths, in the group stage of the UEFA Cup. Then they played in the 1st round, but Shakhtar managed to win in France due to Elano's only goal from the penalty spot. The French are seen as the clear favorite of this pair. But it seems that once again everyone underestimates Jovanovic's Pitmen, even if they are left without their brightest player, Mudryk. We bet that Shakhtar Donetsk will be able not to lose this formally home game.
Prediction for the match: Shakhtar Donetsk not to lose (1X).
