Oct 25, 2023 at 9:04 PM Update: 7 minutes ago
Royal Antwerp is still winless after three rounds in the Champions League. The team of coach Mark van Bommel lost 1-4 at home to FC Porto on Wednesday, while FC Barcelona won in the same group against Shakhtar Donetsk: 2-1.
The defeat makes Van Bommel the trainer with the most matches in the Champions League without winning a single one (twelve). He is now tied with Giorgos Donis (APOEL) and Stanimir Stoilov (Levski Sofia and FC Astana).
Van Bommel has lost in all group matches with Antwerp so far. He previously lost all matches with PSV (six times) and VfL Wolfsburg (three times).
On Wednesday evening against FC Porto, Antwerp seemed to be on its way to victory. Alhassan Yusuf made it 1-0 for the Belgian champions in the 37th minute, but after the break a lot went wrong for the home team in the Bosuil Stadium. The Brazilian Evanilson (1-1, 1-3 and 1-4) scored a hat trick and in between the Canadian Stephen Eustáquio was accurate (1-2) for the Portuguese.
Jurgen Ekkelenkamp and Vincent Janssen had a starting place at Antwerp and Owen Wijndal came on after an hour. In the final phase, Gyrano Kerk came on as a substitute for the home team.
Pusic crashes on debut as Shakhtar coach
At FC Barcelona-Shakhtar, Marino Pusic was on the bench for the first time as trainer of the Ukrainian top club. He failed to upset Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys with his new team: 2-1. Halfway through, Barcelona already led 2-0 thanks to goals from Ferran Torres and Fermín López. In the 62nd minute, Heorhiy Sudakov scored for Shakhtar and that was it.
On Saturday, Pusic was still on the bench as assistant to Arne Slot in Feyenoord’s 4-0 victory over Vitesse, but after that his transition accelerated. He flew from the Netherlands to Spain on Monday, for his first match as head coach of Shakhtar. Pusic is the successor to the dismissed Patrick van Leeuwen at the 2009 UEFA Cup winner.
The 52-year-old Pusic, who was previously head coach of FC Twente, had to start immediately. Barcelona were missing quite a few players, including Frenkie de Jong, Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Jules Koundé and Sergi Roberto.
Barcelona had chances before halftime through Oriol Romeu and João Cancelo, before Torres opened the score after half an hour. He shot in a rebound after López had hit the post.
Twenty-year-old López signed for Barcelona’s 2-0 in the 36th minute. After a good pass from Torres, he gave himself space to shoot and found the net with a nice shot via the inside of the post. Shakhtar made it exciting again after more than an hour after a nice goal by Sudakov, but the Ukrainian club did not get any further.
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Summary: FC Barcelona-Shakhtar Donetsk (2-1)
2023-10-25 21:31:14
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