Real Madrid vs. Shakhtar Donetsk 10/21/20 UEFA Champions League Soccer Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Real Madrid is welcoming Shakhtar Donetsk to Estadio Alfredo di Stefano in round 1 in the UEFA Champions League.

Real Madrid has been winning games so far this season, but they haven’t been playing convincing soccer. In their last game in LaLiga against Cadiz at home, Real Madrid has had 74% of ball possession, 2 shots on goal, 4 corner kicks, 1 big chance created, and a solid 88% of the correct passes. Real Madrid conceded a goal early in the game, in the 16th minute, and unfortunately, they weren’t able to come back from that. Real Madrid has lost this match 0-1. Despite this loss, Real Madrid is in 3rd place in the standings with 10 points, 6 scored goals, and 3 conceded goals. What got Real Madrid their LaLiga title last season was the defense, which is nowhere to bee this season. Carvajal, Odegaard, Diaz, Hazard, and Odriozola are all injured, and only Odegaard might play in this game. Vinicius is the leading goalscorer for Real Madrid with 2 goals so far this season. Real Madrid was always the team that played the best when needed the most, and it’s not like they are in some kind of crisis right now, but they are not playing well, and coach Zidane has been under fire from the media and the fans for letting James go to Everton in the offseason. Real Madrid is still a good team, but we will see if they can get to the level from the last season.

Shakhtar has won the Ukrainian Premier League last season, dominantly I might add, but they have won only 3 of their first 6 games of the season. At the moment, Shakhtar is in 3rd place in the Premier League standings with 12 points, 15 scored goals, and 7 conceded goals. In their last Premier League game against Lviv at home, Shakhtar has had 61% of ball possession, 7 shots on goal, and 3 corner kicks. Shakhtar was the better team in this match, and they have won this game 5-1. Kovalenko is the leading goalscorer for Shakhtar with 4 goals so far this season. Shakhtar reached the semifinals in the Europa League last season, but they got demolished by Inter in that game, and they got knocked out. Shakhtar is the best team in Ukraine, but they are still not playing good soccer this season. Shakhtar is a team filled with Brazilian players, good Brazilian players, but they just lack the depth to make an impact in the Champions League. There are a lot of injuries in Shakhtar at the moment, and that will certainly have an impact on their game in the Champions League.

Real Madrid has played twice against Shakhtar in the past, and they have won both of those games. It’s not questionable that Real Madrid is the better team here, but they are not playing the dominant soccer they can, but neither does Shakhtar. We have seen a lot of goals in both of the games these two teams played in the past, and I will give it a shot at goals once again.