Shakhtar almost managed to cling to points against a top opponent in London.
Donetsk “Shakhtar” suffered a defeat against London “Arsenal” in the match of the third round of the main stage of the Champions League of the 2024/25 season. The match at the Emirates Stadium in London ended with a score of 1:0.
The Gunners opened the scoring in the 29th minute of the match – Gabriel Martinelli entered the penalty area from the left flank and shot into the near corner, the ball bounced off the post and hit Shakhtar goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk and flew into the goal.
UEFA initially attributed the goal to Martinelli, but then rewrote it as an own goal by Riznyk.
In the second half, Mikel Arteta's men tried to build on their advantage and earned a penalty – in the 76th minute, Donetsk defender Valeriy Bondar played with his hand in his penalty area.
However, the home team failed to convert the penalty – Riznyk parried Leandro Trossard's shot into the center of the goal with his feet.
Thus, the intrigue in the match remained until the final whistle. Moreover, at the end of the game, Marino Pusic's men had several good chances to equalize the score, but the confident actions of the London goalkeeper David Raya allowed Arsenal to hold on to a minimal victory.
It should be noted that the Ukrainian defender of the “gunners” Oleksandr Zinchenko spent the entire match on the bench.
Review of the match “Arsenal” – “Shakhtar”
Will be added soon.
Let's add that in the first two rounds “Shakhtar” played a draw against the Italian “Bologna” (0:0) and lost a crushing defeat to the Italian “Atalanta” (0:3). In turn, Arsenal shared points with Atalanta (0:0), and then confidently beat French PSG (2:0).
As of now, the Miners occupy 29th place in the overall standings of the main round of the Champions League, having one point to their credit. The Gunners with 7 points rose to fourth position.
The eight best teams of the main stage of the Champions League will reach the 1/8 finals. The clubs that take places from 9th to 24th in the overall standings will play paired play-off matches for a place in the 1/8 finals. The rest will finish their performance in European competitions.