Shakhtar Donetsk vs Barcelona match facts

Shakhtar Donetsk welcome Group H leaders Barcelona to Hamburg with the visitors closing in on a place in the UEFA Champions League knockout rounds for the first time in three seasons.

First-half goals from Ferran Torres (28) and Fermín López (36) made it three wins from three – and 200 in the European Cup overall – for Barcelona in the reverse fixture on Matchday 3 despite Georgiy Sudakov's 62nd-minute reply for the visitors.

Barcelona therefore have nine points, three more than second-placed Porto, having previously won 5-0 at home to debutants Antwerp on Matchday 1 before a 1-0 victory at Porto, and another victory against Shakhtar will make sure of a top-two finish.

Shakhtar are third on three points. Beaten 3-1 by Porto in Hamburg – where Shakhtar are playing their home games in this season's competition – in their first fixture, the Ukrainian side looked set for a second loss as they trailed 2-0 at Antwerp at half-time, but three second-half strikes, two of them from Danylo Sikan including a 76th-minute winner, snatched a memorable victory.

Previous meetings 

Barcelona wins 7
Shakhtar wins 2
Draws 1
Barcelona goals 20
Shakhtar goals 9

This is the sides' 11th fixture, Matchday 3 having been a first since 2010/11, when Barcelona eased to a comfortable victory in the Champions League quarter-finals en route to claiming their fourth European title.

Yaroslav Rakitskyy scored Shakhtar's goal in the 60th minute of the first leg at the Camp Nou but the home side ran in five of their own, from Andrés Iniesta (2), Dani Alves (34), Gerard Piqué (53), Seydou Keita (61) and current coach Xavi Hernández (86) to emerge 5-1 winners. Lionel Messi (43) got the only goal of the return in Donetsk.

Two late Messi goals (87, 90+4) had given Barcelona a 2-1 win in Donetsk in the 2008/09 Champions League group stage, but the Ukrainian side turned the tables with a 3-2 victory at the Camp Nou on Matchday 6, Oleksandr Gladkyy scoring twice and Fernandinho getting what proved to be the winner. Having finished third in Group C, Shakhtar moved into the UEFA Cup, which they went on to win; Barcelona ended the season as Champions League winners.

The Spanish side claimed the 2009 UEFA Super Cup with a 1-0 extra-time win against Shakhtar in Monaco, Pedro Rodríguez getting the only goal in the 115th minute.

Each side won at home in the 2004/05 Champions League group stage, goals from Deco (15), Ronaldinho (64pen) and Samuel Eto'o (89) earning Barcelona a 3-0 victory at the Camp Nou before a Julius Aghahowa double (14, 22) gave Shakhtar a 2-0 victory in Donetsk. Shakhtar were third in their section once more; Barcelona finished second behind AC Milan but lost to Chelsea in the round of 16.

Xavi played in six of those games between the clubs, winning five and losing only that 2004 away game.

Barça had beaten Shakhtar 4-0 on aggregate in the 1978/79 European Cup Winners' Cup first round, doing most of the damage with a 3-0 first-leg win at home in which all the goals came in the first 24 minutes. Hans Krankl scored in both matches.

Form guide

Shakhtar

Record vs Spanish clubs: W7 D7 L18 F36 A58
Home record vs Spanish clubs: W3 D5 L7

Shakhtar were paired with Real Madrid in last season's group stage, a 2-1 away loss on Matchday 3 preceding a 1-1 draw in Warsaw the following week in which they conceded a 95th-minute equaliser.

That was the third successive season in which Shakhtar had been drawn to face Madrid in the group stage. Having won 3-2 away and 2-0 at home in 2020/21, they were beaten 5-0 at home and 2-1 away in the following campaign.

Despite their 2020/21 victories against Madrid, Shakhtar have won only seven of their 32 meetings with Spanish clubs, and three of their 15 home fixtures, losing four of the last seven (W1 D2).

The Ukrainian side are making a seventh successive appearance in the Champions League group stage, and an 18th overall. They have featured in all but one of the last 14 seasons.

The Pitmen have failed to progress from their section in each of the last five campaigns.

In 2022/23, Shakhtar kicked off with a 4-1 win at Leipzig but failed to win another game, finishing with six points to end third in Group F behind Real Madrid and the German club.

That victory at Leipzig was Shakhtar's first in the Champions League since a 2-0 win at home to Real Madrid on Matchday 5 in 2020/21. This season's win at Antwerp is one of only three victories in their last 19 group games (D7 L9), and one of just six in their last 33 matches in the competition proper (D13 L14).

Last season, the Donetsk club subsequently won a dramatic Europa League knockout round play-off against Rennes, progressing 5-4 on penalties after a 3-3 aggregate draw, but were overwhelmed by Feyenoord in the round of 16 (1-1 h, 1-7 a).

Shakhtar's most successful Champions League campaign came in 2010/11, when they reached the quarter-finals before losing 6-1 on aggregate to eventual champions Barcelona.

The win at Antwerp is one of only two in the Ukrainian club's last 16 Champions League group stage matches (D6 L8).

The Pitmen have managed only six wins in their last 24 home European matches (D11 L7).

Under Igor Jovićević, Shakhtar won their 14th Ukrainian Premier League in 2022/23, finishing five points above Dnipro-1.

Jovićević was replaced as coach in the summer by Patrick van Leeuwen, who in turn left the club on 16 October; eight days later, Marino Pušić was announced as his replacement on a deal until 2026.

Barcelona

Record vs Ukrainian clubs: W17 D2 L5 F46 A25
Away record vs Ukrainian clubs: W7 D1 L3

Barcelona's last games with a Ukrainian club before Matchday 3 came in the 2021/22 Champions League group stage, when they beat Dynamo Kyiv 1-0 both home and away – their only wins in that season's competition.

Barça have won seven of their 11 away games against Ukrainian clubs, losing three – two of those defeats coming in the Champions League group stage. The Blaugrana have won their last ten matches versus teams from Ukraine, since that 3-2 home loss to Shakhtar in December 2008.

Xavi scored Barcelona's first goal in a 2-1 win at Dynamo Kyiv on Matchday 6 of the 2009/10 Champions League.

This is Barcelona's 28th Champions League group stage campaign, a competition record they share with Real Madrid. They have featured every season since 2003/04.

Barcelona have twice won the European Cup at Wembley, the venue for this season's final; they beat Sampdoria 1-0 after extra time in 1992 to take the trophy for the first time, and also defeated Manchester United 3-1 in 2011.

The five-time European champions reached the quarter-finals or better every season between 2007/08 and 2019/20, winning the title in 2009, 2011 and 2015, but have failed to make the round of 16 in each of the last two campaigns.

Xavi's side were third in their section for the second season running in 2022/23, winning only two of their six games – both against Viktoria Plzeň – and losing three to finish behind Bayern München and eventual runners-up Inter Milan. Barcelona failed to score in three of their Group C games.

Barça's subsequent Europa League campaign lasted only one tie, Manchester United eliminating them 4-3 on aggregate (2-2 h, 1-2 a) in the knockout round play-offs.

Barcelona have won only 14 of their last 32 away matches in European competition (D9 L9), although they were unbeaten in eight (W5 D3) before losing at Benfica on Matchday 2 in 2021/22. Their away record since is W5 D1 L4.

The Catalan club claimed their 27th Liga title, and a first for four seasons, in 2022/23, finishing ten points ahead of Real Madrid at the top of the standings.

Links and trivia

Xavi was a Barcelona team-mate of Shakhtar centre-back Dmytro Chygrynskiy in 2009/10, the pair helping the club to win La Liga and the FIFA Club World Cup.

Oleksandr Zubkov was in the Ferencváros team beaten 5-1 at the Camp Nou in the 2020/21 Champions League group stage.

Robert Lewandowski has two goals in his four appearances against Shakhtar, including one in Bayern München's 7-0 win in the 2014/15 round of 16 second leg.

İlkay Gündoğan scored both away (3-0) and home (1-1) for Manchester City against Shakhtar in the 2019/20 Champions League group stage.

Marian Shved played for Sevilla's youth team from 2015 to 2017.

Shakhtar's Irakli Azarov and Giorgi Gocholeishvili both started in Georgia's 7-1 UEFA EURO 2024 qualifying defeat by a Spain side including Gavi and Lamine Yamal on 8 September. Aged 16 years 57 days, debutant Yamal became both Spain's youngest player and goalscorer in the match.

Ferran Torres scored in Spain's 4-0 UEFA Nations League win against Ukraine on 6 September 2020.

Artem Bondarenko scored Ukraine's goal in a 5-1 loss against Spain in the UEFA Under-21 European Championship semi-final in Bucharest on 5 July.

Latest news

Shakhtar

Shakhtar were 1-0 winners at Dynamo Kyiv on Friday thanks to a second-half goal from Oleksandr Zubkov.

On 30 October Shakhtar secured their first victory under new head coach Marino Pušić, triumphing 3-0 away to second-division team Viktoriya Sumy in the Ukrainian Cup quarter-finals thanks to goals from Yehor Nazaryna, Zubkov and Yaroslav Rakitskyy.

In their previous domestic match on 21 October, Shakhtar clinched their first Ukrainian Premier League win in three games by defeating LNZ Cherkasy 3-0.

Danylo Sikan scored his first league goal since 14 August, making him Shakhtar's joint-top scorer this season with four goals across all competitions. Kevin Kelsy, who scored on Matchday 1, came off the bench and found the net twice in the final seven minutes, his first league goals of the season.

Shakhtar's other joint-top scorer is Olexiy Kashchuk, who returned to the team this summer after a successful loan spell at Azerbaijan side Sabah, where he managed 16 goals and 12 assists last season.

Shakhtar's league match against Chornomorets Odesa on 28 October was postponed due to logistical challenges related to their Champions League travels.

Patrick van Leeuwen's departure on 16 October made his tenure as coach, at 105 days, the shortest in the club's history since Ukrainian independence.

Darijo Srna, the sporting director, served as the interim replacement before former Feyenoord assistant coach Pušić was appointed as the permanent successor on 24 October. The 52-year-old Bosnian has signed a contract until the end of the 2025/26 campaign.

Shakhtar had suffered their first defeat in this season's Ukrainian Premier League on 30 September, going down 2-1 at home to Vorskla despite Zubkov's first goal of the season. It was their first home league loss since defeat by the same scoreline against Oleksandriya on 7 August 2021; their record in their subsequent 24 home games was W21 L3.

Before losing to Vorskla, Shakhtar's league record in 2023/24 was W5 D3, a three-game winning run ended by a 1-1 draw at Rukh Lviv on 23 September.

Rakitskyy was sent off against Rukh, becoming Shakhtar's fifth player to receive a red card in the league this season.

Club captain Taras Stepanenko made his 400th appearance for Shakhtar on 27 September in a 3-0 victory against Veres Rivne in the Ukrainian Cup round of 16.

Georgiy Sudakov scored his first goal for Ukraine in a 2-0 victory against North Macedonia in the UEFA EURO 2024 qualifiers on October 14. He followed this up with his maiden Champions League goal against Barcelona on Matchday 3.

Left-back Irakli Azarov was carried off on a stretcher in the first half on Friday.

Shakhtar's first-choice striker Lassina Traoré is expected to be sidelined until the end of the year with a torn tendon; he has not been included in their UEFA Champions League squad.

Barcelona

Matchday 3 was Barcelona's 200th European Cup victory.

The Matchday 2 win against Porto was Xavi Hernández's 100th game as Barcelona coach and his 63rd victory (D18 L19).

Already the second youngest player in UEFA Champions League history, Lamine Yamal became the youngest player to start a match in the competition at Porto, aged 16 years 83 days – three days younger than Celestine Babayaro when he played for Anderlecht against Steaua București in November 1994.

On Saturday Ronald Araújo's first La Liga goal since 20 March 2022 earned Barcelona a 1-0 victory at Real Sociedad, the defender finding the net in the 92nd minute.

That was only Barcelona's third victory in their last six Liga matches (D2 L1).

Barça's unbeaten start to the season (W10 D3) was ended by a 2-1 home loss against Real Madrid on 28 October, a game in which İlkay Gündoğan gave them an early lead – the German midfielder's first goal for the club.

Barcelona had won all of their previous seven home matches this season.

On 22 October, teenaged forward Marc Guiu came off the bench to mark his senior debut with the only goal in a 1-0 home win against Athletic Club. Aged 17 years 291 days, he was Barcelona's youngest La Liga debutant to score in the 21st century.

Yamal scored Barcelona's first goal in a 2-2 draw at Granada on 8 October, making him the youngest scorer in La Liga history at the age of 16 years 87 days.

Academy graduate Fermín López scored his first Liga goal in a 2-2 draw away to Mallorca on Tuesday 26 September.

Pedri came on as a substitute on Saturday, his first appearance since suffering a thigh injury in August.

Robert Lewandowski (out since 4 October, ankle) and Raphinha (29 September, hamstring) returned as second-half substitutes against Real Madrid before starting at the weekend.

Jules Koundé sprained the medial lateral ligament in his left knee in the 2-2 draw against Granada, returning to play 90 minutes on Saturday.

Frenkie de Jong suffered an ankle injury in the 3-2 win against Celta Vigo on 23 September and has not played since.

Sergi Roberto has been sidelined by a calf injury since 8 October.

Gavi scored the only goal as Spain won 1-0 in Norway on 15 October to book their place at UEFA EURO 2024; Ferran Torres also started.

João Felix and João Cancelo both scored as Portugal, who had qualified for UEFA EURO 2024 with a 3-2 home win against Slovakia three days earlier, won 5-0 in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 16 October.

Yamal became Spain's youngest player and scorer, aged 16 years 57 days in a 7-1 win at home to Georgia on 8 September. He is also the youngest EURO goalscorer, beating Gareth Bale's record (17 years 83 days).

On 30 October Lewandowski finished 12th in the Ballon d'Or voting, won for the eighth time by former Barcelona forward Lionel Messi.

The same day, Pedri came third in the voting for the Kopa Award for the best young player with Gavi fifth and Alejandro Balde seventh.