Well-known journalist and editor-in-chief of Football magazine Artem Frankov has prepared a forecast for the Champions League group stage match between Barcelona and Shakhtar.
Artem Frankov"Barcelona are certainly experiencing significant personnel problems due to the huge number of injured first-team players - just look at their line-up in the recent La Liga match against Athletic, which the Catalans barely won thanks to a goal from the young and still unknown player Gueye. Another "La Masiana", how many more are there!
Actually, here it is, this list: Lewandowski, Pedri, Rafinha, Sergi Roberto, De Jong, Kunde plus Gavi are all suspended for their sending off in the match against Porto. And Baldi, the main left-back, has recovered! Not bad, isn't it? And Shakhtar's Bondar has just returned from injury, although Matvienko has been a bit out of sorts in the national team again... The presence/absence of Lemkin and Petriak does not affect the team's potential too much. So do we start to believe in the success of our players?
I'll say this: we can assume that the Pitmen, who, unlike the sad Basques, will not be able to stop playing in attack, will definitely have opportunities - like in the glorious 1-2 match with Ter Stegen's incredible feats.
That is, there will be chances - another question is that Barca will have no fewer of them in any line-up, and it's up to them to outscore each other. And also - who will "reconfigure" whom, a lot depends on this: whether Darijo Srna will be able to set up the players so that nothing trembles or falls.
So, yes, in such a scenario, I disagree with the bookmakers that the outcome of the match is SO pre-determined. Of course, a victory for the hosts is much more likely - but not to overlook the opponent at all.
My bet: 1 and TM 2.5 for 4.55 - I'm not going to make it up, the current Barca play like this all the time, and it's not for the Ukrainian champion to break this custom," said Frankov.
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