Real Madrid made an embarrassing start in the Champions League on Wednesday by losing 3-2 at home to a depleted Shakhtar Donetsk, their second consecutive defeat ahead of the Clasico against Barcelona on Saturday. 

Shakhtar were without 10 first-team players and nine members of staff due to coronavirus infections but recorded a remarkable win at the Alfredo di Stefano stadium, after scoring three times in 13 first-half minutes. 

Strikes from Tete and Manor Solomon, either side of a Raphael Varane own-goal, gave the Ukrainian champions a shock lead at the interval and while Luka Modric and Vinicius Junior pulled goals back, Madrid fell short. 

Fede Valverde thought he had grabbed an equaliser in injury time but his deflected shot was ruled out after VAR showed Vinicius was offside. 

 

Continue reading this article on Sports Desk, the new sports website by Times of Malta

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.