- 1 Shakhtar Donetsk vs Sporting CP: a Ukrainian home game in west London
- 2 Shakhtar Donetsk: top of their league again, but without Pedrinho
- 3 Sporting CP: 62 European games in a row with a goal, and a defence that leaked three to LASK
- 4 Free Champions League Prediction: Shakhtar Donetsk vs Sporting CP
- 5 About our free predictions
- 6 No commitment from us
- 7 Information changes
- 8 Your responsibility
- 9 Responsible gambling
- 10 Legal age
- 11 About visuals
Shakhtar Donetsk vs Sporting CP: a Ukrainian home game in west London 
Shakhtar Donetsk will play this home game at Stamford Bridge. The club took Chelsea’s ground for all of its 2026/27 Champions League league-phase fixtures, and the first of them, on 14 October, finished 3-1 against AEK Athens.
Sporting CP are the visitors on Tuesday 3 November, kick-off 17:45 UK time, in the fourth round of the league phase. The early slot is the same one Shakhtar had for AEK, and it means a crowd in London watching two sides who’ve each played three games and are separated by two points.
The table puts Sporting 12th with six points and a goal difference of plus three, from 7 scored and 4 conceded. Shakhtar are 17th with four points, from 4 scored and 3 conceded. Both are inside the play-off places for now, and both know the next two rounds decide which side of the top eight line they end up on.
The two clubs have met twice before, both times in the 2008/09 group stage, and Sporting won both 1-0. Liedson scored the winner in Donetsk. That’s a long time ago and almost nobody from either squad was involved, so I wouldn’t read anything into it beyond the fact that this is a fixture without much recent history.
What matters more is how each side has arrived. Shakhtar beat Obolon 2-0 in Lviv on Friday to go back to the top of the Ukrainian league, and Sporting won 2-0 at Casa Pia the same night. Both also won League or Cup ties in midweek, so neither arrives rested.
Shakhtar Donetsk: top of their league again, but without Pedrinho 
Arda Turan’s side have been very hard to score against domestically. Before Friday’s game they had 25 points and a goal record of 20 scored and 5 conceded, and the 2-0 win over Obolon, with both goals from Alisson around the 70th and 85th minutes, extended that.
The cup tie three days earlier said more about their mood. Shakhtar beat Dynamo Kyiv 3-0 in the Ukrainian Cup on 27 October, with Gleiker Mendoza, Isaque and Alisson scoring, and Dynamo finished with nine men. A 0-0 at Zorya a few days before that is the only recent blemish.
Pedrinho won’t play. He tore the back of his thigh against Inter on 21 October and was due to have surgery in Finland on 29 October, so he’s out for a long spell, and Prosper Oba has taken his place in the Champions League squad. Pedrinho scored against AEK, and he was the player linking midfield to the front line.
In Europe, the goals have come late and from different places. Mendoza has two in the competition, Vinicius Tobias one and Pedrinho one, and Tobias and Mendoza both scored in the last ten minutes against AEK. Severino Silva has two assists. Their only European defeat so far was 1-0 at San Siro.
Mendoza joined from Kryvbas on 22 May, and the summer business also brought Karavayev from Dynamo on a free on 10 June and Matturro from Genoa on 26 August. Sudakov left for Benfica on 1 July for around 20 million euros. Eguinaldo is out injured, and the squad Turan sends out in London will lean heavily on Alisson, who’s just earned a first Brazil call-up.
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Sporting CP: 62 European games in a row with a goal, and a defence that leaked three to LASK 
Sporting have scored in each of their last 62 Champions League matches. That run carried on through all three games this season: 3-1 against Galatasaray at Alvalade, 2-0 at Lens on 13 October, and then a 3-2 home defeat by LASK on 21 October.
The LASK game is the one Rui Borges will have studied hardest. Sporting conceded three at home to a side they were expected to beat, and four days later they lost their first league game of the season, 2-1 at home to Académico de Viseu. Sporting had beaten Braga 3-1 away on 9 October, so the dip came quickly.
They’ve steadied since. Borges made 11 changes for the League Cup quarter-final on 27 October and still beat Marítimo 2-1, with Pedro Lima scoring twice, and Lima scored again in the 13th minute at Casa Pia on Friday before Geny Catamo added the second in stoppage time. Sporting are third in Portugal on 21 points.
Luis Suárez carries the attack. He has four of Sporting’s seven Champions League goals, with Issa Doumbia, Catamo and Zalazar the other scorers, and he and Doumbia both scored in Lens. Zalazar has been out since 25 October, so one of those scorers is already missing.
The absences go beyond him. Zeno Debast and Nuno Santos are both injured, which takes a centre-back and a wide option out of the squad, while Flávio Gonçalves and Doumbia could come back into the side after being rested. Sporting have conceded four goals in three Champions League games, and with Debast out, I’d expect a few more.
Probable lineup Shakhtar Donetsk: Not announced at time of publication
Probable lineup Sporting CP: Not announced at time of publication
Free Champions League Prediction: Shakhtar Donetsk vs Sporting CP
Our prediction: Both teams to score at 1.62
The case starts with Sporting’s run. A side that’s scored in 62 straight Champions League games, with Suárez on four goals in three this season, has a strong chance of scoring against a Shakhtar team that’s just lost Pedrinho and conceded in all three of its European games.
The other half rests on Sporting’s defending. They gave up three at home to LASK and two at home to Viseu inside a week, and Debast’s absence weakens the back line further. Shakhtar scored five times in their two games before this one and have goals spread between Alisson, Mendoza and Tobias, so they don’t depend on one man.
The win market is close, with Sporting around 1.90 and Shakhtar near 3.70, and I don’t trust either side enough to pick a winner. Both teams to score at 1.62 fits what both sides have done this autumn better than either result does.
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