Champions League: Braga versus Shakhtar Donetsk 0 - 0; Halftime Report
The awaited encounter that had to prove who of the underdogs was worthy enough to take a step further into the Champions League was finally here.
Many expected that the Portuguese club Braga would be thumped hard by the Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk but that did not happen as a boring midfield game was seen.
After Braga were humiliated 6-0 at the Emirates Stadium in the encounter against Arsenal, it seemed that Braga was not worthy enough to participate in the tournament.
However they had defeated Sevilla which came at the 4th position in the lustrous Spanish League, La Liga and Celtic which acquired the 2nd position in their hard fought domestic league Scottish Premier League.
Braga came 2nd in the Portuguese Liga last season while Shakhtar won its domestic league, the Ukrainian Premier League.
The starting lineup of Braga was 84 Felipe goal keeper, 2 Alberto Rodríguez centre left defender, 5 Moisés centre right defender, 28 Silvio left back, 15 Miguel Garcia right back, 25 Salino left midfielder, 88 Vandinho right midfielder,
99 Matheus forward, 22 Luis Aguiar right centre forward, 9 Paulo César left attacking midfielder and 30 Alan right attacking midfielder.
The starting lineup of Shakhtar Donetsk was 30 Andriy Pyatov goal keeper, 44 Yaroslav Rakitskiy centre left defender, 5 Olexandr Kucher centre right defender, 26 Razvan Dinca Rat left back, 33 Darijo Srna right back, 3 Tomás Hubschman
left midfielder, 19 Olexiy g*y right midfielder, 9 Luiz Adriano forward, 22 Henrik Mkhitaryan right centre forward, 10 Willian left attacking midfielder and 20 Douglas Costa right attacking midfielder.
In the start of the match it was soon apparent that this would be a very dull fixture. In the 3rd minute Braga’s Moisés’ attempt to score was blocked while Luis Aguiar assisted him with a cross.
This early first attempt was then followed by some fouls and lethargic play by both sides. Ultimately the next chance to score came in the 12th minute when Olexiy g*y missed his chance to score.
Just 5 minutes later it was Braga who missed their opportunity to score with Matheus while Alan taking a left footed shot to the right but completely missing it.
In the 19th minute Luiz Adriano and Olexiy g*y were at it again as they attempted to give Shakhtar their opener of the game nonetheless they failed again.
The next piece of action came in the 29th minute as Alan assisted for Braga. Leandro Salino got the ball and took a right footed shot from the box’s right into the far bottom left corner but it was saved.
Players were finally getting bored of the dull play and in the 32nd
minute Vandinho took a 35 yard shot that was launched pass the frame and the keeper up into the air.
In the 36th minute there was a substitution made by Braga as Paulão replaced Alberto Rodríguez. That was followed by Braga’s player Silvio taking another shot from 35 yards beyond and this time the ball went to the right
side.
Near to the end of the half, in the 42nd minute Alan assisted Silvio in a right footed shot but on the right side but the ball was just a bit high for the net.
This was retaliated by a counter orchestrated by Shakhtar’s Olexiy g*y but Douglas Costa’s right footed shot was too high and too wide.
Play sharpened even further in the end as Matheus assisted a counter attack to Braga’s Leandro Salino and he was very close to scoring the opener but he missed to the left.
With that the score line ended at 0-0.
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