Shakhtar need another home win as Madrid visit

FC Shakhtar Donetsk secured their first points of the campaign in the 4-0 win against Malmö FF on matchday four and realistically they need another victory on matchday five if they are to retain qualifying hopes.

• In the reverse fixture on matchday one, Karim Benzema began Real Madrid CF's 4-0 victory on the half-hour with Cristiano Ronaldo adding a second-half hat-trick to become the UEFA Champions League's all-time top scorer with 80 goals.

• Victory will assure the visitors, who booked their place in the last 16 with a 1-0 defeat of Paris Saint-Germain on 3 November, of finishing first in Group A. Even a win will not be enough for Shakhtar to stay in contention if Paris also pick up three points in Malmo.

Match background

Shakhtar
• The Ukrainian Premier League runners-up, who are in their 11th group stage campaign, followed their opening defeat by losing 3-0 at home to Paris and 1-0 at Malmö.

• The Paris reverse was only Shakhtar's fourth in their last 18 home games in the UEFA Champions League group stage, with nine wins.

• They beat Fenerbahçe SK 3-0 at home in the third qualifying round to progress with the same aggregate score and in the play-offs they followed a 1-0 win at SK Rapid Wien with a 2-2 home draw.

• Shakhtar won only one of their four home games in the 2014/15 competition, beating FC BATE Borisov 5-0. They lost 1-0 to Athletic Club and drew the other two games, including a goalless first leg against FC Bayern München in the round of 16; they subsequently lost 7-0 away.

• They also faced Spanish opponents in 2013/14, beating Real Sociedad de Fútbol 2-0 away and 4-0 at home. The win in Donetsk was only their second success in eight games at home to Spanish opponents and they have lost four of the last five. Overall their record against Liga clubs is W4 D5 L11.

• Shakhtar lost the 2009 UEFA Super Cup 1-0 against FC Barcelona in Monaco.

• Their best performance in the UEFA Champions League came in 2010/11, when they reached the quarter-finals.

Madrid
• After beating Shakhtar, their 20th group stage campaign continued with a 2-0 win at Malmö. In the double-header with Paris they drew 0-0 away and then won 1-0 at home.

• The matchday three draw was only the third time in their last 32 UEFA Champions League away fixtures that Madrid had failed to score.

• The Spanish giants won all three away group fixtures last season; the previous campaign they won two and drew the other. Their unbeaten group away run stands at nine, since a 2-1 defeat at Borussia Dortmund in 2012/13.

• In 2014/15 they advanced to a fifth successive semi-final, where they lost to Juventus (1-2 away, 1-1 home). The defeat was only their sixth in 32 away games in the competition.

• Madrid have won only one, and lost one, of their six visits to Ukraine, a 2-1 victory at FC Dynamo Kyiv in the 1999/2000 second group stage.

Coach and player links
• Ukraine's Andriy Pyatov, Olexandr Kucher and Vyacheslav Shevchuk faced Croatia's Luka Modrić twice in 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Modrić scored in a 2-2 draw in Zagreb on 6 June 2009.

• Toni Kroos opened the scoring for Germany against a Ukraine side including Kucher and Yaroslav Rakitskiy in a 3-3 friendly draw in Kyiv on 11 November 2011.

• France's Karim Benzema scored past Pyatov in a 3-0 win against Ukraine in a 2014 World Cup play-off in Paris on 19 November 2013. Raphaël Varane was also in the France team; Kucher, Rakitskiy, Vyacheslav Shevchuk and Taras Stepanenko featured for Ukraine.

• Rakitskiy, Shevchuk, Kucher and Pyatov faced Nacho and Isco in Spain's 1-0 UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying win in Kyiv on 12 October.

• International team-mates:
Eduardo, Darijo Srna & Modrić (Croatia)
Fred & Marcelo, Danilo, Casemiro (Brazil).

Match facts

Shakhtar
• Kucher and Srna are serving one-game bans.

• Shakhtar have won their last 12 domestic fixtures.

• They put four without reply past FC Volyn Lutsk on Saturday, Marlos on target twice. Since their defeat by Malmö on matchday three, the Pitmen have won five in a row, scoring 22 times.

• Mircea Lucescu's team played two friendlies in Turkey during the international break, drawing 1-1 with Antalyaspor and defeating Alanyaspor 2-1.

• Srna made his 300th Ukrainian Premier League appearance as Shakhtar triumphed 3-2 at PFC Olexandriya on 7 November.

• Alex Teixeira has 19 league goals in 13 outings this season, already two more than his division-leading tally of 17 last term. He has scored two goals in a match on eight occasions in 2015/16.

• Rakitskiy, Shevchuk and Pyatov featured in both legs of Ukraine's victorious UEFA EURO 2016 play-off against Slovenia. Stepanenko appeared in the return game in Maribor.

• Viktor Kovalenko scored twice, his first goals at Under-21 level, as Ukraine won 2-1 in Northern Ireland on 17 November in a qualifying match for the 2017 European finals.

Madrid
• Casemiro will incur a suspension with his next booking.

• Real Madrid suffered their first loss in 19 games in all competitions – since a 2-1 setback at Juventus in the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League semi-finals – when they went down 3-2 at Sevilla FC on 8 November.

• The Whites were beaten again, 4-0 at home by Barcelona, on Saturday. Isco was sent off late on as Madrid suffered their heaviest defeat since they succumbed by the same score to Club Atlético de Madrid on 7 February.

• Recovered from a thigh injury, James Rodríguez scored in Seville on his first appearance for two months. He was on target again on 12 November in Colombia's 1-1 FIFA World Cup qualifying draw with Chile.

• Marcelo limped off with a thigh injury on matchday four. He missed the loss to Sevilla, but returned against Barcelona.

• Daniel Carvajal came on for Marcelo in El Clásico – his first appearance since sustaining an ankle injury against Atlético on 4 October.