Shakhtar Donetsk vs Antwerp facts

Having revived their UEFA Champions League ambitions with a memorable victory on Matchday 4, Shakhtar Donetsk will look to step up their challenge for a top-two finish in Group H at home to an Antwerp side who are on the brink of early elimination from European competition.

The Ukrainian champions were 1-0 winners against Barcelona in their last fixture, their second win in the section – the first having come via a memorable comeback victory at Antwerp on Matchday 2.

Shakhtar therefore have six points, three behind both Barcelona and Porto; Antwerp are yet to record a point in their first Champions League campaign.

Previous meetings

Matchday 2 was the clubs' first meeting and it initially looked as if Antwerp's first home Champions League game would end in victory as first-half goals from Arbnor Muja (3) and Michel-Ange Balikwisha (33) put them in command. Shakhtar's Danylo Sikan halved that advantage just three minutes into the second half, however, before Yaroslav Rakitskyy levelled with 19 minutes remaining, Sikan completing the turnaround with his second goal and Shakhtar's third five minutes later.

Form guide

Shakhtar

Record vs Belgian clubs: W9 D5 L1 F34 A16
Home record vs Belgian clubs: W4 D3 L0

Shakhtar last faced Belgian opponents before this season in the 2021/22 Champions League third qualifying round, beating Genk 2-1 away and at home on their way to the group stage.

The Matchday 2 win at Antwerp made it seven successive victories against Belgian clubs – and five in a row in Belgium.

Shakhtar have also been victorious in their last three home games against Belgian visitors having drawn three of the first four (W1).

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.

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.

This season the Ukrainian side kicked off with a 3-1 loss to Porto in Hamburg before winning at Antwerp. Beaten 2-1 at Barcelona on Matchday 3, they then defeated the Spanish side 1-0 in Germany.

That Matchday 4 win was only Shakhtar's fourth in their last 20 group games (D7 L9), and one of just seven in their last 34 matches in the competition proper (D13 L14).

The win against Barça was only Shakhtar's third in their last 17 Champions League group stage matches (D6 L8) and only their seventh in their last 25 home European games (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.

Antwerp

As well as being their first game against Shakhtar, Antwerp had also never played Ukrainian opponents in UEFA competition before Matchday 2.

The Great Old's sole previous European Cup tie before this season came in 1957/58, Real Madrid winning 2-1 in Duerne in the first round first leg with Alfredo Di Stéfano scoring both goals before Héctor Rial's first-half hat-trick set up a 6-0 second-leg home victory at the Santiago Bernabéu.

Antwerp were the champions of Belgium for the fifth time, and the first since 1957, in 2022/23, a 94th-minute goal from Toby Alderweireld on the final day of the season securing a 2-2 draw with Genk to snatch the title.

Mark van Bommel's side also lifted the Belgian Cup for the second time in four seasons to complete a first domestic double.

Antwerp then beat AEK Athens 1-0 at home – despite playing almost half the match with ten men following Jelle Bataille's 50th-minute red card – and 2-1 away in the play-offs to reach the Champions League group stage in what was their first European Cup contest in 66 years.

Antwerp went down 5-0 at Barcelona on Matchday 1 and, after the home defeat by Shakhtar, subsequently lost 4-1 at home to Porto and 2-0 away.

The Belgian side's most notable European campaign came when they finished runners-up in the 1992/93 European Cup Winners' Cup, losing 3-1 to Parma at Wembley. They remain the last Belgian club to reach the final of a UEFA competition.

This is Antwerp's fifth successive European campaign, their participation in the 2019/20 Europa League having ended a 25-year absence from continental competition.

The Great Old took part in UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying last season, beating Drita of Kosovo 2-0 on aggregate in the second qualifying round and Norway's Lillestrøm 5-1 in the next round only to lose 4-2 on aggregate to İstanbul Başakşehir in the play-offs (1-1 a, 1-3 h).

Before Matchday 1, Antwerp had suffered only one defeat in their previous ten European matches (W6 D3). They have now lost four in a row, equalling their longest run of European defeats.

The Matchday 1 defeat at Barcelona ended Antwerp's six-game unbeaten away European run (W3 D3); they had lost the previous four.

Links and trivia

Shakhtar's Yehor Nazaryna appeared in 18 games in all competitions for Antwerp between January 2018 and September 2019.

Novatus Miroshi played in Belgium for Zulte Waregem in 2022/23 before joining Shakhtar on loan this summer.

Maryan Shved represented Belgian side Mechelen from 2020 to 2022 before signing for Shakhtar.

Pušić played in Belgium for Eupen in 1995/96.

Latest news

Shakhtar 

On Friday Shakhtar were held 0-0 at home by Polissya Zhytomyr. It was the first league game in which they had failed to score since another goalless draw, against Metalist 1925 Kharkiv on 23 August 2022, a run of 41 games.

Shakhtar have won only two of their last six league games (D2 L2).

The Pitmen have already lost twice in this season's Ukrainian Premier League; their second league defeat in 2022/23 did not arrive until the final game of the season, a 2-1 reverse at Vorskla Poltava on 4 June.

Shakhtar suffered their first domestic loss under new head coach Marino Pušić on 12 November, going down 3-1 at home to Dnipro-1.

Danylo Sikan gave Shakhtar an early lead, his sixth goal of the season in all competitions making him the club's top scorer.

A week earlier Shakhtar were 1-0 winners at Dynamo Kyiv thanks to a second-half goal from Oleksandr Zubkov.

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 only other 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.

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.

The 1-0 victory over Barcelona on Matchday 4 marked Yaroslav Rakitskyy's 350th game for the Donetsk club.

In their final UEFA EURO 2024 qualifier against Italy, Yukhym Konoplia, Stepanenko, and Georgiy Sudakov started for Ukraine, with Sikan and Zubkov coming on as late substitutes. The 0-0 draw left Ukraine in the third position in Group C, sending them to the play-offs in March.

Konoplia had to be replaced early on against Polissya due to a thigh injury.

Dmytro Chygrynskyi and Ivan Petryak both picked up injuries on 20 November in a 3-1 friendly defeat by Rukh Lviv and missed Friday's draw.

Artem Bondarenko has been sidelined since 3 November.

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.

Antwerp

Antwerp's record in this season's Belgian First League is W6 D6 L3. They were held 1-1 at Sint-Truiden on Friday.

Substitute Chidera Ejuke scored a late equaliser, his first Antwerp goal; indeed, he had not found the net since registering for CSKA Moskva on 24 April 2022.

Mark van Bommel's side have lost only two of their last 13 league games, although they have also won only five in that sequence.

The Belgian champions had won their previous two league fixtures, including a 6-0 home victory against Standard Liège on 11 November – the second time they have won by that scoreline in 2023/24 after beating Kortrijk on 11 August.

Vincent Janssen scored twice and has three goals in his last three league appearances; he ended a run of ten games without a goal in all competitions with the opener in a 3-2 home success against Genk on 4 November.

Michel-Ange Balikwisha also has three goals in his last three league outings having scored twice against Genk and got the final goal against Standard.

George Ilenikhena has scored in three of Antwerp's last five league matches. The 17-year-old got his first Antwerp goal in a 3-2 league loss at Charleroi on 21 October; he has four in his last eight appearances.

Arbnor Muja also found the net against Standard, his fourth league goal of the season – one more than in the whole of 2022/23.

Before beating Genk, Antwerp had one win in six league games (D3 L2).

Antwerp had ended a three-game losing run in all competitions with a 4-1 victory away to second division Lierse Kempenzonen in the Belgian Cup last 32 on 1 November.

Toby Alderweireld opened the scoring with his first goal since the strike that clinched last season's league title, before Ilenikhena made it two. Ritchie De Laet's first goal since last season's cup quarter-final and a second-half own goal completed the win.

Antwerp will be at home to Charleroi in the last 16 on 6 December.

Janssen is Antwerp's top scorer in the league this season on eight goals, four more than Balikwisha and Muja; Jurgen Ekkelenkamp and Ilenikhena are on three. No other player has scored more than once.

Balikwisha now has seven goals this season in all competitions, including two in the Champions League.

Muja scored Antwerp's first Champions League group goal on Matchday 2 and has five in all competitions in 2023/24.

The Matchday 1 loss at Barcelona was the first time Antwerp had conceded five goals in a game since a 5-2 UEFA Europa League reverse at Rangers on 25 February 2021. It was their heaviest defeat since another 5-0 loss, at home to Sint-Truiden in the Belgian second division on 1 March 2014.

The 6-0 win at home to Kortrijk on 11 August was the first time Antwerp had scored six goals in a game in exactly ten years, since a 7-2 win at KSK Heist in the second division on 11 August 2013, and their biggest victory since a 7-0 win at Beveren on 1 March 2008.

Antwerp beat Mechelen 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the Belgian Super Cup on 23 July. It was their first appearance in the match since 1992 and their first victory.

The 18-year-old Arthur Vermeeren and Mandela Keita, 21, both made their Belgium debuts as late substitutes during the 3-2 win in Austria on 13 October with which the Red Devils sealed their place at UEFA EURO 2024.

Vermeeren won his second cap, and made his first start, in Belgium's 1-0 friendly win at home to Serbia on 15 November; he played 90 minutes.

Muja came on as a late substitute as Albania drew 1-1 in Moldova on 17 November to qualify for UEFA EURO 2024.

Keita was taken off with a knee injury midway through the first half at Charleroi on 21 October and has not played since.

Jacob Ondrejka, who has not played since 8 September, has been sidelined by a broken bone in his foot.

Anthony Valencia came on as a substitute on Matchday 3 but had to be replaced himself due to a fractured fibula and has not played since.

Björn Engels has been sidelined since February 2022 due to an Achilles tendon injury.