Preview

On July 12, the Miners will have their last friendly in Austria. 

On the summer training camp, Paulo Fonseca’s men have played four test games, defeating Brondby of Denmark (3-2), Austria of Austria (3-0), Vitesse of the Netherlands (4-1) and being tied with CSKA of Bulgaria (0-0).
 
Opponents
 
The history of the Istanbul-based Besiktas dates back to 1903. The club is the 15-time domestic title winner, 9-time Cup winner and 8-time Super Cup winner in Turkey. In 2003, the then would-be Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu led the Black-and-Whites to winning the title, but in the next 12 years they managed to repeat this success only once - under Mustafa Denizli in 2009. A long term without trophies was interrupted after the appointment of Senol Gunes: with him at the helm, Besiktas won two league titles in a row (2016, 2017) and advanced to the Champions League round of 16 for the first time ever.
 
In the Turkish Super League 2017/18, Besiktas finished in the fourth spot (after Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Istanbul Basaksehir), with the Black Eagles never losing at home, being only four points adrift of the champions in the final table.
 
Leaders
 
Besiktas have a balanced squad with a large number of experienced internationals. The main goalkeeper is the Spaniard Fabri. The former players of Real Madrid and Barcelona Pepe and Adriano, the Chilean Gary Medel and the Turk Caner Erkin play defensively. Launching attacks depends a lot on the Dutchmen Jeremain Lens, Ryan Babel and the Portuguese Ricardo Quaresma (the best assist provider in the team), with Alvaro Negredo, Mustafa Pektemek, Vagner Love and other strikers spearheading the attacks.
 
Previous match
 
Shakhtar often met with the Turkish clubs in test matches. On November 14, 2013, at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, the Miners defeated Besiktas with a major score of 4-1. Fred grabbed a brace, with Ilsinho and Douglas Costa scoring one goal each for Shakhtar. Interestingly, Dentinho played on loan at the Istanbul team and spent 90 minutes on the pitch back then.
 
Where to watch it?

The Shakhtar vs Besiktas game kicks off at 18:00 Kyiv time (EET) on July 12. The live broadcast will be aired on Futbol 2 TV channel.