Shakhtar to stun Porto in Champions League opener
Published:Porto may be the Portuguese Liga champions, the Europa League champions and the Portuguese Cup champions, but that means nothing when you come up against the best in Europe.
Shakhtar Donetsk have become real dark horses in the Champions League thanks to their imperious home form, but their away form isn’t too shabby either and the Ukraine champions look a big price on Tuesday.
Match Odds
There’s no doubt Porto are a strong side but they have lost the manager who lead them to a treble and an unbeaten league season last year and because of that they hold little value at 4/6.
Shakhtar are usually underrated by bookmakers and the 9/2 for them to win seems a big price considering they dominated Porto’s fellow countrymen Braga 3-0 in Portugal on the opening day of last season’s Champions League.
Shakhtar lost just three of their 10 games in the Champions League last season and those defeats came at the hands of Arsenal and Barcelona.
The draw may be the only thing that stops Shakhtar winning and is worth considering at 5/2, but the Ukranian side are very strong in the Champions League and Porto cannot underestimate them.
Total goals
Expect a high scoring game – Porto have scored 12 in their opening four league games while Shakhtar have scored 15 goals in their last five games.
Over 2.5 goals looks a certainty at 5/6 and while Hulk will gather the headlines in the build up to the game, it’s Radamel Falcao’s ready-made replacement James Rodriguez who should be supported in the first goalscorer betting at 7/1.
APOEL Nicosia vs Zenit St Petersburg
Like Porto, Zenit were another side who impressed in the Europa League last season thanks to their ability to score plenty of goals, and with 12 goals in their last three games, the Russian side look the value at 6/5 to win tonight.
