Shakhtar surprised all when they took over the first spot in group H but I`ve got to say they totally deserved to be there as their play and form is just brilliant lately. They`ve won the last 10 matches they`ve played in all competitions, and during that period they even beat Arsenal by 2:1 at home, and Partizan by 0:3 on the road. They are playing incredible footie and their individuals are excellent. Their goalie Pyatov is really solid, same as the defense, while the midfield and offense are full of some very quality and creative players such are Srna, Adriano, Eduardo, Jadson... It is really hard to figure out for the opponent where the biggest danger is coming from. They`re the best team in Ukraine by far and their goals in CL are high, plus they`ve got a historical chance to take the first spot in the groups and I doubt they will fail to use it.
Average
Everybody thought Braga would be a lot stronger opponent and match for the CL teams before the group stages began as they had some impressive wins over Celtic and Sevilla in the qualies, but, the Portuguese side had a 0:9 goal difference after the first two rounds, and was pretty-much equal to Partizan in terms of quality, despite the fact they had some better players. Their play was quite poor, but more than enough to beat Partizan, which hardly belongs to CL. But, they managed to take an advantage of poor Arsenal`s focus in CL and beat them at home, which suddenly even gave them a glimpse of hope that they could even qualify to the knockout stages, but i believe that will remain just a dream for them and EL should be the adequate competition that fits their level. They`ve got a few good players such is striker Mattheus for example, but I expect them to be totally defensive here and to suffer heavily. They`re also in quite bad form in the domestic league, losing the last 3 out of 4 games they played.
Shakhtar to win
I believe Shakhtar will enjoy full domination in this match due to the fact they are clearly the better side, and I think they will hold the ball easily and outrun and outplay out-of-form Braga in all parts of the pitch. Braga might be dreaming about the knockout stages but they will soon get back to Earth and figure out that EL is more than enough for the level of quality they`ve shown so far. I expect Shakhtar to play strong from the start and score in the first goal, while I`m quite sure they can win this one by more than 1 as Braga will also try to win and will open up later on, which will get punished severely by the great Shakhtar`s individuals. Good luck.
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Prediction:
Tip: 1 AH (-1)
Odd: 2.08
Bookie: Bet365
Stake: 7 /10
Tipster: Kather
