Preview

On Friday, the team of Roberto De Zerbi will play a match against Astana. It kicks off at 16:00. The friendly will be streamed live on Shakhtar TV on the official website, on the FC Shakhtar mobile app (Google Play and App Store), and on the club’s official channel on YouTube.

In 2021, Tobol were the strongest side in Kazakhstan, with our opponents Astana finishing second, four points adrift of the title winners (six-time champions from 2014 to 2019). Let us remind you that the tournament there is held based on the spring-autumn system. In the summer, the team – as the third-spot side in the 2020 season –participated in the UEFA Europa Conference League qualification, making it past Greece’s Aris and being knocked out by Finland’s KuPS. Astana will start from the same stage of the new European competition next summer.

In the 2015/16 season, when Shakhtar played in the same group with Real Madrid, PSG and Malmo, Astana made their debut in the main stage of the UEFA Champions League  and claimed the bottom spot in the quartet featuring Atletico, Benfica, and Galatasaray after securing four draws though. After Stanimir Stoilov who coached the team back then, the capital club changed five more mentors including, in particular, the Ukrainian Roman Hryhorchuk.

At the end of 2021, a Serbian Srdjan Blagojevic became the head coach of Astana. He does not hide the fact that the team will be completely different: nine newcomers have joined the squad (including Ukraine U20’s world champion Danylo Beskorovainyi), with several more players having returned from loan.