Shakhtar v Real Madrid: Visitors can find form again after rest

Shakhtar v Real Madrid: Visitors can find form again after rest

Real Madrid have been given extra time to prepare for their match against Shakhtar and Dan Fitch has his money on them to win an entertaining game.

Real Madrid need to recover from poor run

A well-rested Real Madrid side travel to Shakhtar on Tuesday, looking to bounce back from recent disappointments.

Madrid's La Liga match this weekend was postponed, which means that they have not played since before the recent international break. They are without a win in three games (D1 L2), losing in their two most recent outings.

One of those games came in the Champions League, with Real suffering a shock 2-1 home defeat against Sheriff Tiraspol. That followed an opening win away at Inter, which leaves Madrid second in Group D, three points behind the surprise leaders Sheriff.

Shakhtar also also suffered a defeat to Sheriff, losing 2-0 on the road. They got their first point on the board with a 0-0 home draw with Inter and enjoyed a 6-1 win against Zorya at the weekend.

Goals can start to flow again from Spanish giants

Real Madrid are the 1.6 favourites, with the draw at 4.4 and Shakhtar at 6.0.

With the quality they have within their squad, this seems like a fair price for Real Madrid, even if it doesn't reflect upon their poor run of results before the international break. Madrid have only scored two goals in their last three games, but they were previously on a run of fine goalscoring form.

In eight La Liga matches, they have scored 22 goals, which works out as an average of 2.75 goals-per-game. Having had some extra rest before the long trip to the Ukraine, there's reason to think that a well-prepared Madrid side can get back to their best. A Real Madrid win and over 2.5 goals is 2.2.