Antwerp vs Shakhtar Donetsk prediction: EUROPE: Champions League – Group Stage betting tips on match 2023-10-03 16:45.
Antwerp were given a UEFA Champions League (UCL) baptism of fire as they marked their group-stage debut with a 5-0 loss to Barcelona on matchday one, which may have dented their confidence as they followed it up with three consecutive goalless league draws! As they continue to search for their first goal since mid-September, more history beckons with this fixture against Shakhtar Donetsk to be their inaugural competitive meeting with Ukrainian opposition.
The reigning Belgian champions can at least point to some impressive home form as a solid foundation upon which to earn their first UCL group stage win, as they haven’t lost a competitive fixture here since mid-March (W8, D3). The last five of those matches were accompanied by a clean sheet (W3, D2), including August’s 1-0 UCL qualifying win over AEK Athens that helped the Great Old reach the group stages.
As for Shakhtar, they topped the Ukrainian Premier League after last weekend, but prior to that were well beaten 3-1 by Porto in their opening UCL game, a clash that saw all four goals scored inside the first half-hour! Early action or not, they should hope for better here given they’ve never lost to a Belgian club in the UCL (W4, D2), which most recently includes victories both home and away over Genk in 2021/22.
Already disadvantaged by not playing UCL games on home soil due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, their form in UCL away games is also poor as they’ve won just one of their last six such fixtures (D1, L4), with all four of those defeats seeing the Miners conceding exactly twice. That sole win came against Leipzig last term and worryingly remains their only victory in eight UCL group stage away matches (D2, L5).
Players to watch: Vincent Janssen opened the scoring for Antwerp in the last game in which they scored, whilst he also netted their only goal against AEK here in August. Oleksii Kashchuk has netted four times for Shakhtar this term, all of them in away games and either the first or second goal of the game.
Hot stat: Four of Shakhtar’s last six UCL away games witnessed a goal inside the opening 20 minutes.