Shakhtar Donetsk and Celtic will square off at the Polish Army Stadium in their upcoming UEFA Champions League group stage fixture on Wednesday.
Shakhtar kicked off their campaign with an impressive 4-1 win over RB Leipzig last week. They fielded a young squad in that game, and they proved to be up to the task. Celtic faced reigning champions Real Madrid in their campaign opener last time around. After a slow start to the game, the La Liga giants scored three goals in the second half to inflict a 3-0 defeat on Celtic.
Shakhtar continued their winning ways in the Ukrainian Premier League with a 2-1 win over Chornomorets Odesa on Saturday. Celtic's Scottish Premiership game against Livingston was postponed and they will travel to Poland with a week's rest.
Shakhtar Donetsk vs Celtic Head-to-Head
The two teams have met four times, with all meetings taking place in the Champions League group stage. The head-to-head record is perfectly even at the moment, with two wins for each side. Interestingly, both wins for each side have come at home.
Shakhtar Donetsk form guide (all competitions): W-W-W-W-D
Celtic form guide (all competitions): L-W-W-W-W
Shakhtar Donetsk vs Celtic Team News
Shakhtar Donetsk
Viktor Kornienko suffered a serious knee injury last month and is sidelined for the remainder of 2022. Fortunately, he is the only absentee for Hirnyky.
Injured: Viktor Kornienko
Doubtful: None
Suspended: None
Unavailable: None
Celtic
Yosuke Ideguchi is not included in the squad for the group stage and remains unavailable. Kyogo Furuhashi made an appearance from the bench against Real Madrid, leaving Carl Starfelt as the only absentee on account of an injury.
The defender is out until October with a knee injury picked up against Rangers in a league fixture.
Injured: Carl Starfelt
Doubtful: None
Suspended: None
Unavailable: Yosuke Ideguchi
Shakhtar Donetsk vs Celtic Predicted XIs
Shakhtar Donetsk (4-1-4-1): Anatoliy Trubin; Valeriy Bondar, Mykola Matviyenko, Lucas Taylor, Yukhym Konoplia; Taras Stepanenko; Georgiy Sudakov, Marian Shved, Mykhailo Mudryk, Artem Bondarenko; Oleksandr Zubkov
Celtic (4-3-3): Joe Hart; Greg Taylor, Moritz Jenz, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Josip Juranovic; Callum McGregor, Matthew O'Riley, David Turnbull; Jota, Giorgos Giakoumakis, Liel Abada
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Shakhtar Donetsk vs Celtic Prediction
Home advantage has played a huge role in the meetings between the two sides and is expected to be a factor here as well. Shakhtar head into the game on a four-game winning streak across all competitions, while Celtic also have four wins in their last five games.
Given the form of the two sides, this match is expected to end in a closely-contested draw.
Prediction: Shakhtar Donetsk 2-2 Celtic