Shakhtar Donetsk vs Brest Prediction 22 January 2025

🔊 Will Brest remain in the top-8 of the Champions League by the end of the seventh round? The Champions League debutant has prematurely secured a spot in the playoffs, which is one of the main sensations of the group stage. The club has rather modest financial and personnel resources. The same can be said about Shakhtar, which is going through tough times. They still have a chance to advance to the playoffs, but for that, they need to win at least at the "Veltins-Arena" in Gelsenkirchen, where the team plays its home matches. There is no favorite in this pair, so we will consider different options to make the prediction optimal.

📊 Head-to-Head

The opponents have not previously met on the football field.

🟠 Shakhtar

Shakhtar has four points. In the first round, they drew with Bologna away (0:0). The only victory was against Young Boys (2:1). In other cases, it was difficult for them to count on points. For example, in the last round, the "orange-black" were completely outplayed by Bayern (1:5). In the national championship, Shakhtar is only in third place, trailing Dynamo Kyiv by 10 points with a game in hand. However, the last official match took place a month ago. The team is currently actively playing friendly matches to prepare for the end of the Champions League group stage. Recall that the Ukrainian championship will resume only at the end of February. In the upcoming match, Pedro Henrique will not play as he is serving a suspension for a red card received in the match against PSV.

🔴 Brest

Brest has been somewhat fortunate with opponents in this Champions League campaign. Yes, they lost to Arsenal (0:1) and Barcelona (0:3), but managed to take points from Bayer (1:1), for example. They faced quite average teams like PSV, Sparta, and Sturm, which they managed to beat by a one-goal margin. And this was without any major transfers in the summer, although they would have been beneficial considering Brest is only in ninth place in France's Ligue 1. The gap from the European competition zone is not hopeless, so all the competition lies ahead. Especially since in the last two rounds, the team defeated strong teams like Rennes (2:1) and Lyon (2:1). Brest has quite a few losses. Notably, Jordan Amavi and Massadio Haidara are injured from the match against Lyon.

🟨 Referee and Yellow Cards

The main referee for the match is Sandro Schärer (Switzerland). In this Champions League campaign, he has officiated three matches, including qualification. During this period, he averaged 21 fouls and showed 3.67 yellow cards.

In the Champions League, Brest has an advantage in yellow cards - 2.5 compared to 1.7. Meanwhile, Shakhtar's opponents receive an average of 2.3 yellow cards. In such a situation, a bet emerges - Brest will not lose on yellow cards.

⚽️ Goal Prediction

Brest has scored twice as many goals as Shakhtar in this campaign. Therefore, it's worth evaluating their trends first. Interestingly, the team scores in the first 45 minutes in 6 of their last 7 matches. Looking at their results in the Champions League, they managed to score before halftime in five games. Brest remained goalless only against Barcelona. Therefore, a profitable bet appears - Brest will score in the 1st half.

🚩 Corner Prediction

Shakhtar has an advantage on corners in the Champions League - 4.5 compared to 3. Meanwhile, matches involving Brest average 7.3 corners. Moreover, in five consecutive away games, there were no more than eight corner kicks. However, we recommend playing it safe and choosing total corners under 9.5.

📝 Match Prediction

This is not an easy match to predict the outcome. That's why bookmakers offer roughly equal odds for each side's victory. Shakhtar is not in their best form since their national league is on pause. On the other hand, Brest does not necessarily need a win in this upcoming match. Therefore, a 1:1 draw is unlikely to upset either team significantly.

It's difficult to assess what Shakhtar is capable of after a month's break from competitive play. Therefore, it's worth paying attention to small markets. Brest has significantly lower numbers on corners. Only one of their matches in the Champions League had more than nine corners. Shakhtar had exactly half of such games. Therefore, as a key bet, we suggest total corners under 9.5.