Champions League: Braga vs Shakhtar Donetsk 0 – 3; Full time Report (Part 1)
The awaited encounter that had to reveal who is the proven underdog of the lot and worthy enough to level up further into Champions League was finally here with Braga facing Shakhtar Donetsk at OsArcebispos’ home ground Estádio
AXA.
Expectations by experts and pundits reckoned that the Portugal based club Braga would be hammered by the Ukrainian giants Shakhtar Donetsk and their predictions came true in the second half of the game after a boring first half.
In the aftermath of Braga being embarrassed by a 6-0 defeat at the Emirates Stadium in an encounter against Arsenal, it seemed that Braga is not deemed fit enough to take part in Europe’s most elite club tournament.
Nevertheless there was evidence over the years that proved otherwise as the club had been associated in defeating major clubs.
Braga had already defeated Sevilla which took the 4th position in the popular Spanish League, La Liga, and Celtic who gained the 2nd
position in their home league which happens to be the Scottish Premier League.
Braga itself captured the 2nd spot in Portuguese Liga last season while Shakhtar won its domestic league, the Ukrainian Premier League. While Braga has to fight its way in the Portuguese’s domestic league, Shakhtar can
easily be hailed as the Kings of Ukraine when it comes to football.
Nonetheless there were problems for both clubs being able to give a good performance against each other. For Braga their precious player Quim had been ruled out till the end of this year. He had been deemed unfit in the first leg
of the season as the player had ruptured his Achilles tendon. Right now he is in the recovery and rehabilitation process therefore there his chances of appearing on the field are next to impossible.
The second player that was ruled out of action was Alberto Rodriguez who is a fundamental player in the play making of the team. Doctors have benched him because Rodriguez has damaged his thigh muscles and has been recommended
rest.
For Shakhtar, Fernandinho was expected to be on the sidelines after the player managed to break his leg. Officials from the club had already related that the player might not play for the remaining season.
That is not all for the Ukrainians as their prized player Dmytro Chygrynskiy had also been dismissed from the possibility of playing in the match because the hamstring he pulled in the end of August has not properly healed yet.
In this scenario these were the starting lineups for both teams:
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.
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