Coming off a horrendous 0-4 defeat to their bitterest of rivals, Barcelona, at the Santiago Bernabeau, Rafa Benitez and his squad are in desperate need of a win to silence critics and qualify for the knockout phase of the Champions League.

Their task will not be easy, however, as the Donbass Arena is somewhat of a fortress for Shakhtar Donetsk. Outside of the loss to PSG, Shakhtar have not lost at home since the side’s defeat to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk back in August which is quite a remarkable feat for any club.

This means that if Real Madrid will have to be firing on all cylinders, which they were not on Saturday night, in order to return to Spain with all three points.

Form

Of the two sides, the club from Ukraine is more in form than their opposition. They have one six of their last six matches played in this country, putting up big scores and defending excellently to obtain a +31 goal differential in the Ukrainian Premier League which is outstanding.

We know about the difficulties surrounding Los Blancos at the moment, but before the international break they suffered another defeat on the road at Sevilla. Again Benitez’ outfit dropped the three points, losing 3-2 after Sevilla scored three unanswered goals. They will have to rely on Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Gareth Bale to be in synch with each other throughout the ninety minutes to ensure their qualification tonight.

Key Players

Real Madrid will have to look out for one man in particular: Alex Teixeira. At 25-years-old, the Brazilian is now in his seventh season with the club, he has a remarkable 19 league goals in 13 appearances which leads the Ukrainian Premier League; in second place for the league golden boot is Dnipro’s Yevhen Seleznyov sits on 10 goals scored, nine goals below the leader.   

Any of the big three for Real Madrid need to step up their game, dramatically and as soon as possible. Karim Benzema has been underwhelming this season to say the least, Gareth Bale has not really been impactful and Cristiano Ronaldo is not as dominating as years past. These key figures in the starting eleven will need to start producing more if Real Madrid wants to keep pace with Barcelona at the top of the table.

Prediction

Real Madrid are going to be angry after that embarrassing defeat over the weekend and will be attacking up the pitch from the very first whistle. Shakhtar though, will be ready for the task and will set up their defenses accordingly. With the pace of the Brazilians up front and the form that Teixeira is in, expect the hosts to sit back wait for the counter to try to attack in the open spaces that Madrid will most likely leave open.

However, even with all of this said, expect the visitors to still come away with the victory in a narrow contest that should be decided on poor defending following a corner kick, or winning a penalty.

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