- Shakhtar Donetsk have won 4 of their last 5 matches (L1) with 2 of those victories coming on the road.
- Shakhtar Donetsk average 1.80 goals per away game across all competitions, but they should be able to find more space in the PSV half here.
- PSV are unbeaten in 4, but Shakhtar have won 3 of their last 3 away games, suggesting The Pitmen can spring an upset.
Shakhtar can snatch a result in the Netherlands
Shakhtar Donetsk travel to the Netherlands to face PSV Eindhoven in the UEFA Champions League on Thursday and it should be a pulsating match-up between two very different, yet equally likeable, brands of football.
Peter Bosz has set up PSV to play a possession-heavy, high-pressing brand of football in which the full-backs are encouraged to go into the inside channels and the front players to swarm over opponents high up the pitch. It's a good fit for the Boeren (Farmers) right now and they are flying with 4 wins and a draw from their last 5.
That sequence includes a 5-1 home win over FC Groningen, a 6-1 thumping of FC Utrecht and a 3-1 away win at Ajax, so they're certainly scoring freely right now, with a dozen goals in their last 3 games alone.
However, Shakhtar Donetsk have a great travelling record and won't be fazed by playing away. The Ukrainian side have won 8 of their last 10 in all competitions and Arda Turan has set them up to be compact, but adaptable, to soak up pressure or flood the flanks if they have the ball in the opponent's half.
Kaua Elias gives the Hirnyky (The Pitmen) a real danger man right now, with 3 goals in his last 5, and Shakhtar should be capable of breaking the pressure when the ball turns over, with their pace and movement likely to punish PSV behind their press.
The last head-to-head between these teams was an 3-2 win for PSV in the UEFA Champions League 2024/2025 and this should be equally as open and end-to-end with plenty of goals in it. The Boeren have won 2, drawn 3 and lost 2 of their 7 home games in all competitions, averaging 2.71 goals per game scored and 2.43 conceded, so goals certainly do flow at the Philips Stadion.
But Shakhtar have won 4 of their 5 away matches and their most recent away results saw them beat FC Kharkiv and FC Karpaty Lviv either side of a 0-2 defeat to Polissya Zhytomyr. Shakhtar are capable of nicking it on the counterattack and the price of 6.4 for the upset looks generous given PSV's record of 5 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats across their last 10 in all competitions.
So, we're going for a Shakhtar upset in the outright market and Over 2.5 goals, which is priced up at 1.45, and Both Teams to Score, which is at 1.6.
