BEVERLY HILLS, October 21, (THEWILL) –Â Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk took to the Estadio Alfredo di Stefano and inflicted a 3-2 defeat on Real Madrid in their UEFA Champions League Group B opener.
The visitors surged into a shock 3-0 lead at half-time with French centre back Raphael Varane scoring an own goal, but were pegged back to 3-2 as Real responded after the break with goals from Luca Modric and Vinicius Junior.
The hosts thought they had snatched a point courtesy of a Federico Valverde’s deflected stoppage-time strike, but it was rightly disallowed for offside by VAR.
The result means Shakhtar go top of Group B for a few hours at least, as Internazionale and Borussia Monchengladbach do battle later.
Real will quickly want to get this result out of the system as a huge La Liga showdown against Barcelona on Saturday stares them in the face.
As for Shakhtar, they play away to Vorskla in the Ukrainian Premier League on the same day.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
