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Barcelona find themselves just a point away from securing qualification for the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League for the first time after two seasons.
A win or a draw against Shakhtar Donetsk later today in Hamburg, Germany, should ensure Xavi Hernandez & co. are through to the knockout stages of the competition after having failed to do so in the last two campaigns.
However, Shakhtar will not go down easy and will put up a fight, much like they did in the reverse fixture at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys last month, even though Barça emerged 2-1 winners on that night.
As mentioned before, the game will be played in Hamburg, at the Volksparkstadion, given the circumstances in Ukraine.
But, Barcelona do not have the greatest of records when it comes to playing Germany, as they have won just ten of the 36 games they have played on German soil (D14 L12).
However, what bodes well for the Blaugrana is the fact their ace goalscorer Robert Lewandowski has a solid record at the Volksparkstadion.
Indeed, Lewandowski has netted five goals previously at the stadium in Hamburg, two coming during his time at Borussia Dortmund and three with Bayern Munich.
Should Barcelona go on to beat Shakhtar today, it would be the third time that they have won the first four matches in the UEFA Champions League, after the 2002/03 and 2020/21 seasons. And they did not win the trophy in either of them.
Ferran Torres has not had it easy during his stint at Barcelona, but has shown signs of form this season and tends to do well particularly in the Champions League.
Indeed, with five goals in eight games (352 minutes), Torres has the best goals-per-minute ratio (one every 70 minutes) among all the players who have played at least 250 minutes for Barcelona in the competition.
This week marked two years of Xavi being announced as the manager of Barcelona and the team could celebrate the occasion in style tonight.
Indeed, Barça could score their 200th goal under Xavi against Shakhtar…
Source link : https://barcauniversal.com/five-key-stats-ahead-of-shakhtar-donetsk-vs-barcelona-uefa-champions-league/
Author : Michel Durant
Publish date : 2023-11-07 11:09:11
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