Preview

Before the match
 
It will be Shakhtar’s second competitive meeting in 2018. Last Friday, Paulo Fonseca’s men claimed a 5-0 Ukrainian League win over Chornomorets Odesa and fully focussed on the Champions League.
 
On the morning of February 20, Kyiv hosted the Miners’ training session, with the 15 opening minutes being available for media coverage. In the afternoon, the team will leave for Kharkiv. At 19:00, Paulo Fonseca and defender Bohdan Butko will give a press conference at the OSC Metalist.

Opponents
 
Roma claimed the top spot in their Champions League group featuring Chelsea, Atletico and Qarabag, after securing three wins and two draws.
 
In the new year, the Romans have faced some issues in Serie A: since late December, Eusebio Di Francesco’s men could not win for six rounds and never scored more than one goal over 90 minutes. The situation improved just before the meeting with Shakhtar.
 
The success in the games vs Verona (1-0), Benevento (5-2) and Udinese (2: 0) enabled the Giallorossi to declare their full ambition of advancing further in the Champions League. The Miners’ opponents climbed up to the third spot, being ahead of their closest competitors Inter and Lazio. In the recent three meetings, the performance of a 20-year-old Cengiz Under meant a lot – he netted four goals: the Miners already know this Turkish player after the encounter with Istanbul Basaksehir in the 2016/17 season.

Head-to-head record
 
The opponents have had 4 Champions League meetings. Shakhtar have 3 wins and 1 loss. The goal difference is 7-6 in favour of the Donetsk side.
 
The Miners won both home games with the aggregate goal difference of 4-0.
 
Previous Champions League meeting
 
On 8 March 2011, Shakhtar entertained Roma at the Donbass Arena after the away 3-2 triumph. Mircea Lucescu’s men opened the scoring already on 18 minutes (with Willian netting one), and extending the lead in the second half (with Willian grabbing a brace and Eduardo sealing the win) to advance to the quarter-finals.