Gladbach v Shakhtar: match preview

November 25, Monchengladbach, Borussia-Park, 19:55

Match build-up

On the morning of November 24, Shakhtar held a training session in Sviatoshyno, the same afternoon Luis Castro and Taras Stepanenko answered reporters' questions via videoconference, and in the evening the team flew to Germany. The Miners stopped in a hotel in Dusseldorf to go to the Borussia-Park stadium in Monchengladbach on the matchday.

Shakhtar's preliminary player list features 20 footballers. Khocholava, Kovalenko and Taison did not go to Germany, with Moraes and Kryvtsov - for whom this will be the first Champions League game this season - having arrived there. Let us remind you that Luis Castro was forced to do without the top scorer of the last two years in the games vs Real Madrid and Inter, while vs Gladbach Junior came on as a substitute when the score was 0-4.

The group standings are as follows: Borussia are topping it (5 points), Shakhtar and Real Madrid have 4 points each, with Inter sitting bottom of the table (2).

Opponents

Today exactly five years ago, Borussia Mönchengladbach claimed their first victory in the Champions League group stage - at home over Sevilla (4-2). Back then, Lars Stindl scored a double, being reminded of that match at today’s press conference. The following season Gladbach defeated Celtic away, this time beating Shakhtar away. The opponents have not won more than once in the group stage to date.

By the way, it is the skipper Stindl who is Borussia's current top scorer (5 goals). Having netted one in Kyiv, a few days later he scored a double vs Bayer in Leverkusen, suffering a 3-4 defeat in that match though. And in the following round, Marco Rose's players drew with Augsburg (1-1).

Ramy Bensebaini tested positive for COVID-19 at the end of last week and is self-quarantining, while the team's veteran Oscar Wendt has returned to the left flank. It is not known if forward Alassane Plea will be able to help Borussia this Wednesday. But Jonas Hofmann will definitely not play against Shakhtar due to the injury he suffered while playing for Germany.

Head-to-head record