Shakhtar Donetsk will know they will be in pole position to win Group E if they take all three points at FC Nordsjaelland in Tuesday's Champions League game.
The Ukrainian side will be reeling from their last-minute loss to Chelsea in the previous match, and will be desperate to put things right and take control of the group again with a victory over the Danish minnows, who have picked up just a single point all campaign.
Shakhtar are level on points with Chelsea, with Juventus just a point behind the two teams, and manager Mircea Lucescu is not taking the game against Nordsjaelland for granted. "This match is very important, for us and for our opponents," he said. "This is Nordsjaelland's last Champions League match in Denmark and they will fight until the end.
"We will take them very seriously and do our best to get the victory. Nordsjaelland do not have a great deal of experience as they are a young team and this season is their first taste of Champions League football. They made some bad mistakes in their last game in Turin but they are improving all the time and caused Chelsea and Juventus problems in previous matches.
"Danish sides are usually good footballing teams, and Nordsjaelland are no exception. They are good at keeping possession and can play some beautiful football. Next year they will be an even better side, with all the experience they are gaining here. We hope to have learned from our mistakes against Chelsea and Juventus."
Nordsjaelland coach Kasper Hjulmand added: "We would love to get a victory. That's why we're here. We'll be giving everything we got -- fighting hard, eating grass in pursuit of that winning feeling.
"We are facing a highly motivated opponent and even if we manage to get the win, we know we're not on the same level as the other teams in the group. Shakhtar are a fantastic side and probably the big favorites to progress from the group. They have great attacking qualities and can come at us in a variety of ways, which will test our organisation."
Forwards Andreas Laudrup and Mikkel Beckman are unavailable through injury for Nordsjaelland while Dmytro Chygrynskiy and Tomas Hubschman are ruled out for Shakhtar.
To watch FC Nordsjaelland vs Shakhtar Donetsk Live Stream, click here.
Expected lineups: Norsjaelland: Hansen; Gundelach, Okore, Runje, Kildentoft; Adu, Christensen; Lorentzen, Christiansen, John; Nordstrand.
Shakhtar: Pyatov; Srna, Rakitskiy, Kryvtsov 12, Rat; Stepanenko, Fernandinho; Willian, Mkhitaryan, Alex Teixeira; Luiz Adriano.
Prediction: 2-0 to Shakhtar
(**Sports World Report does not endorse the live streaming of the games of the sites it has linked to. It has no control over the content of the website and thus does not warrant that it is error or virus free or free of other harmful components.)
