Shakhtar Donetsk v Dinamo Zagreb facts

Shakhtar Donetsk and Dinamo Zagreb both have three points to their name in Group C, so their meetings over the next two matchdays could go a long way towards determining who reaches the UEFA Champions League round of 16.

• Both sides have beaten Atalanta and lost to section leaders Manchester City, and meet at the OSK Metalist Stadion in Kharkiv with Shakhtar looking to make it three wins from three against their Croatian rivals.

Previous meetings
• The sides' only past fixtures came in the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, Shakhtar winning both matches. The Ukrainian side triumphed 2-0 in the Donetsk first leg, before a 3-1 success in Zagreb.

• Darijo Srna, now Shakhtar's assistant coach, scored the club's opening goal of that tie, with goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov playing all 180 minutes.

Form guide
Shakhtar
• Beaten 3-0 by Manchester City in Kharkiv on Matchday 1, Shakhtar came from behind to win 2-1 at Atalanta last time out, substitute Manor Solomon scoring the winning goal five minutes into added time.

• That victory against Atalanta at San Siro in Milan was Shakhtar's second win in nine UEFA Champions League matches (D3 L4).

• Despite losing to City, the Donetsk club have been defeated in only three of their last 19 home matches in Europe (W11 D5), although they have not won any of the last five. They have not kept a clean sheet in any of the last ten.

• Quarter-finalists in 2010/11, Shakhtar won only one of their six matches in last season's group stage, collecting six points to finish behind Manchester City and Lyon in Group F. They picked up only two points at home, drawing with Hoffenheim and Lyon and losing to City, before going down 6-3 on aggregate to Eintracht Frankfurt in the UEFA Europa League round of 32 (2-2 h, 1-4 a).

• Shakhtar have got out of their UEFA Champions League group in three of their last six participations.

• The Pitmen's 2008 games against Dinamo are their only previous contests against a Croatian club.

• Shakhtar qualified as winners of the Ukrainian league, claiming the title for the 12th time in 2018/19, when they completed a domestic double for the third season in succession.

Dinamo
• A Mislav Oršić hat-trick helped Dinamo to a 4-0 defeat of Atalanta in Zagreb in their first Group C game, making the 26-year-old the first player to hit three goals for a Croatian club in a UEFA Champions League group encounter.

• That was just Dinamo's fifth win in the UEFA Champions League group stage in their 37th match (D5 L27); they suffered six defeats in their most recent participation, in 2016/17. They had lost 11 successive matches, and won only one of 27 (D2 L24) – a 2-1 defeat of Arsenal in Zagreb in September 2015 that ended a 16-year wait for a victory in the competition proper – before beating Atalanta.

• The 2-0 loss at Manchester City on Matchday 2 was Dinamo's 13th successive away defeat in the UEFA Champions League group stage, since a 2-2 draw at Marseille on 2 November 1999.

• Dinamo have nevertheless won five of their last 11 European away matches (D3 L3).

• Dinamo claimed their 13th Croatian league title in 14 seasons in 2018/19 – and 20th in all – but their UEFA Champions League campaign came to an early end with a play-off defeat against Young Boys. Moving into the UEFA Europa League, the Zagreb club finished first in their section before getting the better of Viktoria Plzeň in the round of 32, then bowing out after extra time against Benfica in the last 16 (1-0 h, 0-3 a).

• Nenad Bjelica's side started this season's UEFA Champions League in the second qualifying round, easing past Georgia's Saburtalo 5-0 on aggregate (2-0 a, 3-0 h) before a 5-1 victory over two games against Ferencváros of Hungary (1-1 h, 4-0 a). They then overcame Rosenborg in the play-offs, winning 2-0 at home before a 1-1 draw in Norway.

• The Zagreb club have never beaten Ukrainian opposition in UEFA competition, home and away (D2 L8); they have been defeated in four of the five away games, the exception a 1-1 draw against Dnipro in the 2003/04 UEFA Cup second round second leg (1-3 aggregate).

• This is Dinamo's seventh UEFA Champions League group campaign overall, and fifth in nine seasons. They have failed to qualify from the group stage in all six previous attempts. In fact, 2018/19 marked the first time in 14 UEFA club competition group stage campaigns – including eight in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League – that the Croatian club had made it through to the next phase.

Links and trivia
• Shakhtar assistant coach Srna won a record 134 caps for Croatia, scoring 22 goals. As a player with Hajduk Split, he won the Croatian league title in 2001 and the domestic cup in 2000 and 2003.

• Current Shakhtar coach Luís Castro worked with Dinamo's Ivo Pinto in Porto's youth teams between 2008 and 2011.

Latest News

Shakhtar
• Luís Castro replaced his Roma-bound compatriot Paulo Fonseca as Shakhtar head coach in June.

• Shakhtar opened this season with a 2-1 Ukrainian Super Cup loss to Dynamo Kyiv, their third defeat in four years in the competition against their great rivals.

• That is Shakhtar's only domestic defeat this season; their first 11 league games have brought 11 wins, 36 goals scored and six conceded. They were 6-0 victors at home to Kolos Kovalivka on Friday.

• Shakhtar are ten points ahead of Dynamo Kyiv.

• Shakhtar are now unbeaten in 40 league games (W35 D5), since a 1-0 away loss to Dynamo Kyiv on 3 August 2018.

• Their winning streak in the Ukrainian league is now 13 games.

• Júnior Moraes has 12 goals and five assists in Shakhtar's 14 competitive matches this season; he scored twice against Kolos Kovalivka, setting up another.

• Marlos has six goals and two assists in 14 games for Shakhtar this season while captain Taison has six goals and six assists in his 12 appearances; he scored twice and set up another goal on Friday.

• Júnior Moraes provided a back-heel assist in Ukraine's 2-0 UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying win against Lithuania on 11 October.

• Shakhtar's Andriy Pyatov, Serhiy Bolbat, Serhiy Kryvtsov, Mykola Matviyenko, Marlos, Taras Stepanenko and substitute Yevhen Konoplyanka also played in that game.

• Three days later, Kryvtsov provided an assist in Ukraine's 2-1 home defeat of European champions Portugal as Andriy Shevchenko's side qualified for UEFA EURO 2020 as Group B winners with a game to spare. Stepanenko was sent off in conceding the penalty from which Cristiano Ronaldo scored Portugal's goal.

Dinamo
• Dinamo suffered their second league defeat of the season on 21 September, going down 1-0 at Varaždin. They were beaten only twice in the whole of their 2018/19 league campaign.

• The Zagreb club won their first six matches of 2019/20 in all competitions, and were unbeaten in their first 12 (W9 D3) before losing 1-0 at Hajduk Split on 31 August, a game they finished with only nine men.

• Dinamo have won all three league games since losing to Hajduk, Mislav Oršić scoring a hat-trick in a 4-2 success at Gorica on Friday.

• Oršić has eight goals in his last six Dinamo matches.

• Bruno Petković scored twice in Croatia's 3-0 victory against Hungary in UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying on 10 October.

• Sandro Kulenović scored once as Croatia's Under-21s beat Hungary 4-1 in a friendly on 10 October and added a hat-trick in the 7-0 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying win against San Marino four days later.

• Izet Hajrović scored in Bosnia and Herzegovina's 4-1 victory against Finland in EURO qualifying on 12 October. Amer Gojak set up the Bosnians' fourth goal, and scored himself – his fourth in four qualifiers – in a 2-1 defeat against Greece four days later.

• Dinamo captain Arijan Ademi set up North Macedonia's winner in a 2-1 defeat of Slovenia in EURO qualifying on 10 October, but was substituted late on after suffering an injury and sat out the Poland match on 13 October. He also missed Dinamo's win at Gorica.

• During the international break Dinamo played two friendly matches, both in Bosnia and Herzegovina; they beat Žepče 2-0 thanks to goals from Leon Šipoš and Dominik Rešetar, before Filip Jovičević found the net in a 1-1 draw against Sloboda Tuzla.

• Dinamo kicked off the new season with a 1-0 win against Rijeka in the Croatian Super Cup on 13 July.

FootballPeople weeks
The FootballPeople weeks take place from 10 to 24 October 2019 and are organised by UEFA's social responsibility partner Fare. The weeks are a global campaign aimed at tackling discrimination and celebrating diversity in football. The UEFA Champions League is offering its full support to the FootballPeople weeks; teams will line up for a mixed photo with the referees, while an #EqualGame hashtag will also be on display. Videos will be played on giant screens at stadiums across Europe, and child mascots will be wearing #FootballPeople t-shirts. UEFA's collaboration with the Fare network's FootballPeople weeks has been running since 2001. The aim of this initiative fits in perfectly with the goals of #EqualGame, which is looking to promote inclusion, diversity and accessibility.