Shakhtar Donetsk welcome FC Porto to the Volksparkstadion this Tuesday in the first game of the Champions League Group stage. In Group H, Shakhtar Donetsk and Porto are joined by Barcelona and Royal Antwerp.
Shakhtar currently sit top of the Ukrainian Premier League after six games with four wins, two draws and 14 points, two clear of the nearest challenger. In their last five games Shakhtar have four wins and a draw. Shakhtar picked up a 2 - 1 win over Oleksandriya, a 2 - 0 win over Kolos despite being down to ten men, a 4 - 1 win over Mynai, and most recently a 1- 0 win over Obolon-Brovar. The draw was a 3 - 3 goalfest against Kryvbas KR where both sides had a man sent off.
In last season’s Champions League, Shakhtar finished third in Group F with Real Madrid, RB Leipzig and Celtic, which bumped them down to the Europa League. In the Round of 32, Shakhtar drew Rennes. Dmytro Kryskiv and Artem Bondarenko both scored in the 2 - 1 win in the first leg. However, Rennes took a 2 - 0 lead in the second leg, and Shakhtar managed to take it to penalties with an own goal from Jeanuel Belocian. After three misses from Rennes, Shakhtar won the shootout 5 - 4.
Next up was Feyenoord in the Round of 16. Yaroslav Rakitskyi scored in the 1 - 1 draw at home and Kevin Kelsy scored in the second leg, however, his goal was only a consolation as Feyenoord put seven goals past Shakhtar giving them the 8 - 2 aggregate win.
Porto are also top of the Primeria Liga with four wins and one draw in five games leaving them with 13 points. The Dragons opened their season with three 2 - 1 wins in a row over Moreirense, Farense and Rio Ave. The one draw came against Arouca with each side grabbing a goal and most recently, Porto picked up a 1 - 0 win over Estrela Amadora.
Last season in the Champions League, Porto finished top of their group. With four wins and two losses in a group with Club Brugge, Bayer Leverkusen and Atletico Madrid, Porto finished top and booked a clash against Inter Milan. However, The Dragons lost the first leg 1 - 0 due to a Romelu Lukaku goal with Otavio being sent off late on. The second leg didn’t improve for Porto as despite registering 21 shots with seven on target and 68% of the possession, Porto drew 0 - 0 with Pepe sent off in the 97th minute.
Shakhtar Donetsk and Porto have met just four times in their histories. Porto have the better record in the fixture with two wins, with the other two games ending in a draw. The last time the two clubs met in the Champions League was in the 2014/15 season where Vincent Aboubakar scored for Porto and Taras Stepanenko scored for Shakhtar in the 1 - 1 draw.