Shakhtar Donetsk take on the visitors Atalanta in the round 2 match of UEFA Champions League group stage. The match will be played on Wednesday, October 2nd at
Shakhtar Donetsk leave a rather mixed impression. The "Miners," in the new reality after nearly all their foreign players left in 2022, have performed well. Domestically, they have maintained their status as a perennial leader in the Ukrainian Premier League. In European competitions, despite having to play all their games abroad, they managed to secure third place in their Champions League group in both the previous and the cycle before last. Along the way, they caused trouble for Spanish giants like Real Madrid in 2022 and Barcelona in 2023, advancing to the Europa League playoffs. However, this past February, they disappointed by crashing out early against a struggling Marseille side, despite retaining Sudakov and signing a few young Brazilians. It's worth noting that Marseille had different coaches during those games. This season, Shakhtar has already managed to lose to Polissya and Oleksandriya. On the bright side, they started the Champions League with a goalless away draw against another Italian side, Bologna. However, Sudakov missed an early penalty, and the team mostly spent the game defending.
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Gian Piero Gasperini, the "Bergamese" rose to become one of Italy's top clubs. After a downturn, Gasperini took a while to find a way out, but last season was a breakthrough. They did lose the Coppa Italia final to a Juventus team in crisis, but in Serie A, they finished 4th. Additionally, they triumphed on the international stage, deservedly winning the Europa League. However, the squad has seen significant changes: some players were sold (Miranchuk and Koopmeiners), Scamacca suffered a serious injury, and they've brought in many new faces, with Retegui scoring regularly. Nevertheless, things haven't gone entirely to plan: they lost 0-2 to Real Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup and have more losses than wins in Serie A. Still, in the Champions League, they managed an impressive draw away to Arsenal in London, even though Retegui missed a penalty.
Five years ago, in 2019, these teams met in the Champions League. They exchanged away wins, but in the end, it was Atalanta who advanced to the playoffs. The Italians are the favorites, but neither team is particularly convincing at the moment. Therefore, the best bet here is "total under 3.0 goals."
Prediction for the match: Under 3.0 scored goals.
