We could be in for a bit of a negative game here tonight. I don’t think that Shakhtar will want to invite Sevilla into an open game, even in front of their own fans in Lviv. Mirca Lucescu understands that his team should adopt a cautious style against a good attacking side and their main task will be to avoid conceding at home. This probably won’t bother Sevilla too much, who will be confident, as they always are, when playing at home in the return leg next week.
This is why I’m expecting to see a tight game. Unai Emeri is an experienced manager and he knows how carefully he must tread in the 1st leg. And Lucescu is pretty experienced too. He’s won this competition once already Europe, so he knows how to manage team’s efforts.
I really can’t see either side going for it too much in this first leg, so the logical way to play this one is to go for under 2.5 goals.