PREVIEW | FC Barcelona v Shakhtar Donetsk

On Wednesday at 6.45pm CEST, Shakhtar Donetsk are the visitors to the Estadi Olimpic in the third round of Champions League group stage matches.

After substitute Marc Guiu came on to mark his debut with a dream goal to save FC Barcelona from dropping two points at home to Athletic Club on Thursday, Barça’s Liga position is looking much healthier with El Clásico against Real Madrid coming up at the weekend. But in the meantime attention reverts to Europe, where things are going even sweeter for the boys in blaugrana.

After comfortably bumping off Royal Antwerp 5-0 in the opening fixture, Ferran Torres’ goal then earned a 1-0 win at Porto to send Barça three points clear at the top of the table.

Shakhtar opened with a 3-1 defeat at ‘home’ to Porto, home in inverted commas because due to the conflict in their country, the Ukrainians are playing their European fixtures in Hamburg. They then went 2-0 down in Antwerp, but came back to win 3-2 to keep their qualification hopes very much alive.

Team news

Barça are once again missing some key players to injury. Jules Kounde, Sergi Roberto, Raphinha, Frenkie de Jong, Pedri and Robert Lewandowski will all be sitting this one out. To add to the difficulties, Gavi is serving a suspension after being red carded against Porto.

So Xavi has been forced to fill the gaps in his squad with youth and reserve team players. Marc Casadó, Fermín Lopez, Pau Cubarsí, Aleix Garrido, Marc Guiu and Hector Fort have all been included in the squad for this game.

For the visitors, Burkina Faso striker Lassina Traoré is out with a ligament injury, but other than that, they are free of injury concerns.

But the Ukrainians are still adapting to a change on the manager’s bench. Patrick van Leeuwen was relieved of his duties last week, and Croatian Darijo Srna has temporarily switched from his role of director of football to manage the side.

His first game in charge was last weekend’s 3-0 defeat of LNZ Cherkasy, which leaves Shakhtar third in their league, two points behind leaders Kryvbas but with a game in hand.

Did you know?

The Shakhtar squad includes Dmytro Chyhrynskyi, who played at centre back for Barça in the 2009/10 season.

If Shakhtar were to win, it wouldn’t be the first time they have done so away to Barça. In the 2008/09 Champions League they won this fixture 3-2, although it is the only time in nine attempts that the side from Donetsk have emerged victorious.

Ilkay Gündogan is looking to become the first Barça player to give assists in three consecutive Champions League games since Andrés Iniesta in 2014.

If Lamine Yamal scores, he’ll become the youngest Champions League goalscorer of all time.

What they're saying

Barça coach Xavi Hernandez is not looking for excuses with players missing against a Ukrainian side who will 'not make it easy'.

A good result against Shakhtar would be the ideal motivator going into El Clásico, which Ferran Torres insists is a matter to only think about once the European fixture has ended.