Shakhtar Donetsk Beat Real Madrid in their Home Ground
Ukrainian champions Schakhtar Donetsk surprised Real Madrid without 13 first-team players after 19 of their players were confirmed positive for coronavirus throughout the club. The Ukrainian side used majorly their youth-team players to the thirteen-time European Cup winners Real Madrid. The young players handed a humiliating defeat as a shambolic first-half performance was clinically punished by a second-string Shakhtar Donetsk side.
But Luis Castro’s young side were undaunted and swept into an amazing, but thoroughly warranted, 3-0 lead at Real’s empty Alfredo di Stefano training ground. The first ended in favour of the visitor but goals from Luka Modric and Vinicius Junior in the second half of the game saw Real Madrid come from three goals down but the two goals were not enough to level the scores.
Club legend Zinedine Zidane won the Champions League in each of his first three seasons in charge of Real Madrid, but his decision to rest players with next Saturday’s El Clasico against Barcelona could have been the soul reason behind the lose. They played without skipper Sergio Ramos who is down witha knee injury.
The Spanish champions’ defence was a mess and could do little to prevent Mateus Tete and Manor Solomon scoring either side of a Raphael Varane own goal. Real Madrid have now lost seven of their last eight Champions League games without Ramos at the heart of their backline. The introduction of Karim Benzema in the second half could not change anything for the home side as the game ended 3-2 in favour of the Ukraine side.
