Milan Benfica Celtic SD This one will be tougher than DK's group. From the other hand, Benfica now is in turmoil, playing badly in its own league and was unimpressive vs. FCK in qualifying. And Celtic is beatable too as Spartak showed.
Shakhtar is stronger than Benfica and Celtic at this moment. Too many motivated, high quality signings.
I have a feeling that yesterday's win brought the players together, made a team out of them - something that was missing in prior Axmet's teams. Waiting for good surprises.
Not bad for Shakhtar. Yes Milan are the defending champs and this is their tournament, but Shakhtar can hang with Benfica and Celtic.
good luck to you in the group. you've trounced us before but hopefully we'll show up as a better team this time around. we weren't at our best against spartak but i wouldn't read too much into both legs. playing the away leg first meant celtic had to decide how to approach the tie. we played a more defensive team in moscow to get a result (which we got), hence why hartley started in place of mcgeady. i was at parkhead on wednesday and it was a great game. hugely different from the first leg because both teams knew exactly what was needed to progress. spartak are a quality team and pushed us all the way. if they had drawn someone else then i'm sure they'd have made the group stages as they have more than enough quality to be performing in the CL. i'm looking forward to seeing your team at parkhead as it has changed a bit since the last time. in particular i'm looking forward to seeing nery castillo who i thought was terrific at the copa america but i'm a little surprised to see he's only made a couple of sub appearances so far this season. has he been injured? or is he just being brought into your team gradually? anyway, good luck in the league and lets hope for some exciting matches.
Neri was injured, but was one of the decisive factors vs. Red Bulls. Clearly, a very good (yet expensive) pick up for Shaxtar.
At the beginning of the Ukrainian Premier League season, Nery was considered out of shape, so he was brought along somewhat slowly. I think the guy impressed in the first couple of matches he played, even though he managed to have his nose broken already. you should have seen his mask - I liked it, team's colors that match their jerseys.
Shakhtar can progress, but I personally expect them to narrowly miss out and get the UEFA Cup spot ahead of Celtic. The away game in Benfica is crucial. They must not loose that to have a chance.
Well, what may appear correct in your forecast is that Western European teams have a huge margin of safety. Hopefully Shakhtar will succeed in avoiding unobligatory losses of points this time.
HalfTime scores: AC Milan - SL Benfica 2-0 FC Shakhtar Donetsk - Celtic FC Glasgow 2-0 (Brandao, Lucarelli) There's only 2 Ukrainians on the field for Shakhtar. 5 are on the bench and Chygrynskiy is suspended for cards.