Europa League, Shakhtar – Marseille: Match announcement and forecast

Europa League, play-off round

February 15, 19:45. Volksparkstadion (Hamburg)

Chief referee: Eric Lambrechts (Belgium)

Live broadcast: Megogo Football 1

The Pitmen, as often happened, were destined to begin the official stretch of matches of the year with the European Cups. This time it is a confrontation with Marseille. Last season, at a similar stage of the Europa League, the Donetsk team beat another French team, Rennes. This year Shakhtar is more stable and balanced, but it also has its drawbacks. At the very least, the opponent is much more serious. At least by name.

Shakhtar News (Donetsk, Ukraine)

A slightly updated Shakhtar has approached the spring (almost) part of the season. Although the UPL championship is most likely the Pitmen’s priority goal for the rest of this campaign, however, European competitions should not be neglected. Moreover, of the three home matches of the Champions League group at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg, they managed to win two. And only in the first match – against Porto – were the Pitmen defeated. Let’s not forget that van Leeuwen was still leading the team at that time.

The only preparation for this match was sparring. It’s difficult to take anything constructively from them, so you can only rely on statistics: three wins, two draws, two losses, 12 goals scored, seven conceded. Pusic pointed out that results in friendly matches do not play a big role for him. In fact, this is standard practice.

The team retained its skeleton and the main young star (about Sudakov here, who else?) and strengthened with newcomers. That is, on the field in Hamburg there will be Shakhtar, which we already know, but adjusted for the level of physical fitness, which we managed or failed to obtain through a series of sparring sessions.

Frames of nominal owners

The main loss for the Pitmen is Taras Stepanenko. He is not yet ready for such a match and, most likely, will not take the field on Thursday. Pusic played Kryskiv in his position. By the way, Dmitry and Sudakov did not train shortly before the match due to discomfort, but they must be ready for the fight. But Traore and newcomer Marlon are definitely outside the lineup.

Marseille News (Marseille, France)

Last season, Ruslan Malinovsky helped the Provencals get into the European Cup. So he literally had his foot in the door so that his two former teams could meet. “Marseille” took third place in Ligue 1, making it to the third round of Champions League qualifying, but “Panathinaikos” then passed Marcelino’s team. In the end, the Olympians ended up in the Europa League group, where they took second position in competition with AEK, Ajax and Brighton.

At the moment, the “Provencals” are led by the hot-tempered Gattuso. Even though in Hamburg, weather forecasters predict +12 degrees Celsius, however, provided that Shakhtar has the advantage (we want), the Italian will cause real heat. Moreover, there are reasons for nerves.

Over the last five matches – not a single victory. Despite the fact that two of these matches were with teams fighting for survival, another meeting was elimination from the French Cup by the aforementioned Rennes. As a result in League 1 – eighth place in the standings. And this is last year’s bronze medalist.

Guest shots

Due to disqualification, Ismaila Sarr will not play. Also, Rongier, Ruiz and Nadir will not take the field due to various types of injuries. The loss of Rongier is very important – the person of this football player in the center of the field can be equated to Stepanenko at Shakhtar.

The last five matches between Shakhtar and Marseille

The last five meetings of the Pitmen

• 08.02. Lechia Gdansk – Shakhtar 1:1 (TM)
• 08.02. Shakhtar – Arkadag 4:1 (TM)
• 03.02. Shakhtar – Velez Mostar 2:3 (TM)
• 03.02. Shakhtar – Hradec Kralovo 0:2 (TM)
• 28.01. Shakhtar – Maribor 0:0 (TM)

The last five meetings of the “Olympians”

• 09.02. Marseille – Metz 1:1 (Ligue 1)
• 04.02. Lyon – Marseille 1:0 (Ligue 1)
• 27.01. Marseille – Monaco 2:2 (Ligue 1)
• 21.01. Rennes – Marseille 1:1 (9:8 pens) (French Cup)
• 12.01. Marseille – Strasbourg 1:1 (Ligue 1)

Head-to-head matches between teams

• 04/16/2009. Marseille – Shakhtar 1:2 (KU/LE)
• 04/09/2009. Shakhtar – Marseille 2:0 (KU/LE)

Approximate compositions

Shakhtar: Riznyk – Konoplya, Bondar, Matvienko, Azarov – Kriskiv, Bondarenko – Zubkov, Sudakov, Kevin – Sikan.

Marseille: Lopez – Clos, Gigot, Balerdi, Marlene – Onana, Unahi, Meite – Ndiaye, Aubameyang, Mumbanya

Figures and facts

• The last time Shakhtar played an official match was 63 days ago. “Marseille” – last Friday.
• The teams crossed paths only once – in the triumphant 08/09 season for the Pitmen. Then, in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup, goals from Hübschmann, Jadson, Fernandinho and Andriano helped Shakhtar advance.
• Over the last five away matches, the Provencals have won only once. It was a match against a team from the fifth division, Thionville, and the score was minimal – 1:0.
• Marseille is the penultimate (17th) team in Ligue 1 based on results in away matches. Only seven points out of 30 possible.

Bets and odds for the match Shakhtar – Marseille

Forecast for the match Shakhtar – Marseille from UA-Football

The main advantage of the “Provencals” is staying in good shape during official matches. Shakhtar is inferior in this aspect, because any official match is more useful than sparring. At the same time, Marseille’s results and overall form are unsatisfactory. Especially when it comes to away matches. Even though this match is not home for Shakhtar either, Hamburg provides very good support for the Pitmen. Therefore, Pusic’s team is ready to give positive feedback to the local fans for the third time. Prediction: Shakhtar win.