Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk restart their competitive season with a Europa League knockout tie against Rennes on Thursday evening.
Shakhtar have not played a competitive fixture in three months, but will hope their excellent European pedigree can see them through over two legs here.
Match preview
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Shakhtar do not return to league action until the end of the month, but they are more than used to playing knockout games at this stage of the season after essentially coming in from the cold.
It has been a challenging season on the pitch, as well as off it, for Shakhtar though, as well as their usual title rivals Dynamo Kiev, as they are currently five points off the pace of league leaders Dnipro-1.
Igor Jovicevic's side finished with just four points from their final three games before the season halted for the winter break, and the January transfer window has undoubtedly left them weaker.
Losing Mykhaylo Mudryk to Chelsea will be a huge loss for the side, despite the hefty transfer fee they received, as no player contributed to more goals in the Ukrainian top flight than him this season (14).
His form in Europe was excellent too as he was involved in five of Shakhtar's eight group stage goals in the Champions League earlier in the season.
They have not bought a replacement for Mudryk so their attacking options look light outside of Lassina Traore and Oleksandr Zubkov.
Promising duo Heorhii Sudakov and Dmytro Kryskiv have become regulars this season, but the pair have big shoes to fill in attacking midfield.
A Mudryk-inspired 4-1 win over RB Leipzig on matchday one was their only win in the Champions League, but they still edged out Celtic into third to make the Europa League with just six points.
There has been no extended winter break for Rennes, but they could use one at the moment given their recent form.
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They have lost five of their last seven matches, but amazingly beat Paris Saint-Germain in that time.
That dreadful run has had a catastrophic impact on their Champions League qualification hopes for next season, as they are now seven points behind Monaco in third.
Winning this competition will of course gain them entry into Europe's top table, but with the calibre of opposition in the Europa League, they must improve drastically to stand any chance.
Rennes were fortunate enough to be drawn with a Dynamo Kiev side in disarray, for understandable reasons, and Cypriot minnows AEK Larnaca in their Europa League group.
Despite going unbeaten during the group stage, it was a messy campaign for Rennes, and it will be seen in hindsight as a major disappointment that they have to play in this preliminary round at all.
They failed to beat Fenerbahce in either tie despite being 2-0 up at home and 3-0 up in Istanbul, before drawing at home to AEK Larnaca on the final matchday when a win would have won the group.
This will be just the second meeting between the sides, as a penalty from former Brazilian international Elano separated the two in a UEFA Cup group stage clash in 2005.
Team News
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Zubkov will return from injury for Shakhtar to soften the blow of losing Mudryk, as the 26-year-old missed their final six games before the break.
Marian Shved and Viktor Korniienko will both miss out for Shakhtar though, through injury.
Sergiy Kryvtsov also left the club in January to go to MLS, so there could be a second debut for the club for recent recruit Yaroslav Rakitskiy in defence, after he controversially left for Russian side Zenit St Petersburg in 2019.
Martin Terrier will be a big miss in the Rennes ranks, as their key player remains out with a knee injury suffered against Nice at the start of the year.
Their replacement for the outgoing Kamaldeen Sulemana, Karl Toko Ekambi, could come back into the side after being benched for their loss at Toulouse.
Lovro Majer has recently returned from a brief spell out, but was only named on the bench at the weekend.
Hamari Traore, Xeka and Lorenz Assignon all remain out injured for the French side.
Shakhtar Donetsk possible starting lineup:
Trubin; Bondar, Mykhaylychenko, Matviienko, Lucas Taylor; Stepanenko, Bondarenko, Sudakov, Kryskiv; Zubkov, Traore
Rennes possible starting lineup:
Mandanda; Spence, Rodon, Theate, Truffert; Bourigeaud, Tait, Santamaria, Doku; Toko Ekambi, Gouiri
We say: Shakhtar Donetsk 0-2 Rennes
Losing their talisman as well as playing their home matches in another country suggests that Shakhtar may find this assignment much tougher than they would have done in previous years.
Rennes are hopelessly out of form but do have plenty of players on the pitch who can make the difference and should have more than Shakhtar on the night.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Andrew Delaney
