Shakhtar starts in the group stage on September 19
The group stage of the Champions League starts on Tuesday, September 19. The 32 best clubs in Europe will determine 16 participants in the playoff round by the end of the year. In total, more than 2 billion euros in prize money will be awarded in the tournament, and the planned television audience of the Champions League is several tens of billions of viewers. Donetsk Shakhtar will also play in the Champions League group. We tell you everything you need to know about the 2023/2024 Champions League, as well as Shakhtar’s matches and opponents.
Who are Shakhtar’s rivals?
The miners ended up in Quartet N. The Donetsk team’s opponents in the group will be Barcelona, Porto and Antwerp. At the same time, if we take into account the club rating, the Miners are ahead only of Antwerp, behind Barcelona and Porto.
The Catalans have the highest club ranking in the quartet: Barça starts the group stage in 14th position. Porto starts in 19th place, Shakhtar in 22nd place, Antwerp starts the Champions League in 73rd position.
Note that of all the participants in the group stage of the Champions League, Antwerp has the third rating from the bottom. Below the Belgian club are only Newcastle (79th position) and Lens (124th place).
Schedule of matches of the group stage and Shakhtar
The group stage matches will take place from September 19 to December 13. Game days for stage matches are Tuesday and Wednesday. The first round will take place on September 19-20, the second on October 3-4, and the third on October 24-25. In November there will also be two rounds of the stage: the fourth – 7-8, the fifth – 28-99. The final, sixth round of the round will take place on December 12-13. Shakhtar begins the group stage with a nominally home match against Porto.
| September 19 | Shakhtar – Porto |
| The 4th of October | Antwerp – Shakhtar |
| the 25th of October | Barcelona – Shakhtar |
| November 7 | Shakhtar – Barcelona |
| November 28 | Shakhtar – Antwerp |
| December 13th | Porto – Shakhtar |
Where will Shakhtar play?
The Pitmen will play their home matches in Germany, choosing Hamburg and the Volksparkstadion, where the local club of the same name plays, as their location. Hamburg now plays in the second Bundesliga, many Ukrainians live in Germany and, in general, interest in football is very high.
But Shakhtar’s performance – more than 30 thousand tickets sold for group stage matches with an arena capacity of 57,000 spectators – is impressive.
Who is the Champions League favorite?
According to bookmaker analysts, the highest chances of winning the tournament has current trophy winner Manchester City. Experts estimate the probability of such a development of events as 1×3. The chance that Bayern will win the Champions League is 1×8. In third place with a probability of 1×9 is Real Madrid.
It is interesting that the finalist of the last Champions League, Inter, did not make it into the top ten when assessing the chance. But there was a place for Napoli, which has not been impressive at the start of the season so far. Note that the probability of Barcelona winning the tournament is 1×11.
Antwerp returns to the tournament of the strongest after 56 years
Immediately 13 participants from the 32 group stage return to the Champions League after the break. The least absent from the tournament of Europe’s strongest clubs were Lazio, Young Boys and Manchester United – all three played in the Champions League in the 2021/2022 season. Among its current participants, Antwerp has not played in the main European Cup for the longest time: the last time the Belgian club played was in the European Cup of the 1957/1958 season and was eliminated in the first round.
Newcastle and Lens have been in the Champions League since the 2002/2003 season, Braga since the 2012/2013 season.
How much will clubs earn in the Champions League?
The total prize fund of the tournament is about 2 billion euros. Each participant in the group stage is guaranteed to receive 15.64 million euros. Each victory in a group stage match will bring the club 2.8 million, a draw – 0.93 million. In addition, UEFA provides for payments for club coefficient (total amount just over 600 million euros), payments for performances ((total amount just over 600 million euros) as well as money for the “marketing attractiveness” of the club (the total amount is just over 500 million euros).
Reaching the 1/8 finals will bring the club another 9.6 million euros, reaching the quarterfinals – 10.6 million. A bonus of 12.5 million euros is provided for reaching the semi-finals, and 15.5 million for reaching the finals. The winner of the tournament will receive an additional 4.5 million euros.
⚽ UEFA Champions League 2023/24 | Prize Money 💶
Out of the €2 billion revenue, the allocation for clubs in the Champions League group stage is stratified into four distinct categories.
Additional revenue opportunities arise for the 16 teams advancing to the knockout stages. pic.twitter.com/AcEVx149hl
— Football Benchmark (@Football_BM) September 15, 2023
Ukraine is the lowest in the group
Ukraine begins the group stage of the European Cup in 17th position in the UEFA coefficient table. All of the Miners’ rivals have a higher country rating. Thus, Spain is in second position, Portugal in seventh. Belgium is eighth.
At the same time, Belgium and Spain retained all their representatives in European competitions, Portugal lost two out of six teams. Ukraine, we recall, has lost three representatives in Europe.
Where to watch Champions League matches in Ukraine
Matches of the Champions League, as well as all European cups, can be watched in Ukraine. Broadcasts of the 2023/2024 Champions League matches will be available on the Megogo platform. From the 2020/21 season, the Mego service offers broadcasts of Champions League and Europa League matches. And in general, all the leading clubs and tournaments in the world are represented on the platform.
Also, live online video broadcasts of the 2023/2024 Champions League matches can be watched on the Volya TV platform in various packages.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
