Champions League: Braga versus Shakhtar Donetsk – Preview (Part 2)
Braga, have in fact performed quite impressively in the earlier parts of the tournament. Celtic came at the 2nd position in the Scottish Premier League last season while in the hot shot Spanish La Liga; Sevilla acquired
the 4th position.
In light of this information Braga can calm their nerves and trust in their abilities. They should also feel confident as they have managed to win 17 of their Portuguese Liga matches under the leadership of Domingos Paciencia.
The 41 year old manager had a lustrous career in the Portuguese League while playing for top notch teams like Porto FC and Tenerife. He has also featured in the Portugal national team and therefore has plenty of experience as a
player to back him.
Paciencia had joined Braga just last season and therefore is considered to be off to a flying and impressive start.
Braga will definitely be hoping to break a leg in the match as some of the players have already injured theirs.
They will be out of services of their star Quim. He has been ruled out for this year or the first leg of the season; you could say as he has ruptured his Achilles tendon. Currently he is in the recovery and rehabilitation phase
therefore there is no chance of his appearance of field.
The other player that has let them down is Alberto Rodriguez who also plays a pivotal role in the team. He is out of action because the Braga player has strained his thigh muscles.
Shakhtar on the other hand have won an impressive lot of matches this season too. They have snatched victories in 12 of their 14 fixtures and therefore are in excellent form at the top of their league again.
It seems that if their performance stays consistent they are sure to defend the Ukrainian Premier League title by winning the domestic league.
The Ukrainian Giants were also the Champions of the final UEFA Cup in 2009 and that is before the tournament’s name was changed to the Europa League. However the rebranding of the tournament has not affected their performance as
they continue to perform superbly according to their standards.
The striker of Shakhtar, Eduardo has reckoned that their Europea is bound to help them out here. He has stated that after all this was the most coveted European tournament therefore every little bit of preparation they had in the
process of reaching here was vital.
The former Arsenal striker explained in a press release, “Braga are technically very strong as they have a lot of Brazilian players. They have the will to win but there is one shortcoming - they do not have the Champions League
experience.”
That observation is very acute and accurate and therefore it seems that Shakhtar will be targeting the ill-experienced non-European side of Braga.
For them it is expected that Fernandinho will miss the action as he got himself a broken leg that he has to cope with.
Also their star Dmytro Chygrynskiy is also ruled out from the match as he pulled his hamstring near to the end of August and has not healed yet. There were reports of a possible comeback in the match but they were later refuted
by the club.
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