Shakhtar – Porto. The Miners spent almost three times less than the Portuguese on summer transfers, but almost four times more than Barcelona

September 19 Miner meeting in Hamburg with Porto will begin its 24th season in history in the Champions League. Their opponent in the group of the most prestigious club tournament in Europe after its reorganization in 1992 will start for the 29th time. Shakhtar’s highest achievement in the Champions League is reaching the quarterfinals. Porto have won the trophy once in 31 years – in the 2003/2004 season, once – in the 1993/1994 season – reached the semi-finals. On the eve of the Shakhtar – Porto match, we talk about the history of the two clubs in the Champions League.

Porto have 15 exits from the group, Shakhtar have four

Out of 28 previous starts in the Champions League, Porto failed to qualify for the group only twice: in the 2000/2001 and 2019/2020 seasons. The Dragons left the group 15 times. We played in the quarterfinals six times, the last time in the 2020/2021 season.

The miners started the tournament 23 times. The group entered the group 17 times. The best result is the quarterfinals of the 2010/2011 season. Shakhtar left the group four times, three times – the path ended in the 1/8 finals. The last time was in the 2017/2018 season.

In total, Shakhtar played 153 matches in the Champions League, Porto – 232.

Porto spent the most in the group on summer transfers

In the summer, Porto spent 33.4 million euros on signing new players. This is the most in the group. In second place in the quartet for this indicator is Shakhtar – 12 million euros, third is Antwerp – 10.5 million, and last, surprisingly, is Barcelona – only 3.4 million euros. By the way, Barcelona spent the least on transfers of all the participants in the 2023/2024 Champions League.

Note that Porto signed Famalican winger Ivan Jaime (10 million), Barcelona midfielder Nico Gonzalez (8.4 million), Boca Juniors midfielder Alan Varela (8 million) and Gil Vicente Fran Navarro (7 million) in the summer. Well, one cannot help but recall the sale of winger Otavio to Saudi Al-Nasr, whose transfer replenished the club’s budget by 60 million euros.

Shakhtar have never won against Porto, the Dragons have seven victories in matches against Ukrainian clubs

In Hamburg, Shakhtar and Porto will meet for the seventh time in their history. The statistics are depressing for the Miners: three draws and three defeats in six matches. The goal difference is 11:7 in favor of the Portuguese club. At the same time, the last two matches between Shakhtar and Porto in the group stage of the 2014/2015 Champions League ended in draws: 2:2 in Lviv, 1:1 in Porto.

In its history, Porto has met only two Ukrainian clubs – Shakhtar and Dynamo. The Dragons have positive statistics in their matches: seven wins, five draws and two losses. Both – from Dynamo in the Champions League: 0:1 – in the group of the 2008/2009 season, 0:2 – in the group of the 2015/2016 season.

Porto is much more experienced than Shakhtar

The average age of the players on the Portuguese team is almost 26 years. The same indicator for Shakhtar is 23.7 years. Porto has seven players aged 29 or older. The Miners have five such players. At the same time, the Donetsk team has five players 19 years old and younger. Porto’s roster does not have a single player under 20 years of age.

Let us note that Porto has 18 foreign players in its application – 63% of the team. There are 12 foreigners among the Miners – 34% of the total application.

RefereeDinka Shakhtar – Porto showed a red card only once in Champions League matches

Yes, the Italian Davide Massa, who will officiate the Shakhtar – Porto match, has sent a player off the field only once in 18 Champions League matches. This happened a year ago, in the group stage match between Marseille and Sporting, when Portuguese goalkeeper Antonio Adan was ejected from the field in the 23rd minute.

In general, in the Champions League, Massa has 76 yellow cards in 18 matches played – an average of 4 yellow cards per match.