ATALANTA looked dead and buried halfway through their debut Champions League campaign – now they go to Ukraine with a chance of completing a remarkable resurrection.
The Italians began Group C with three straight defeats before showing signs of life with a home draw against Man City and victory over Dinamo Zagreb.
Gian Piero Gasperini's side can now squeeze into the knockout round with victory at Shakhtar as long as City avoid defeat in Zagreb.
So the Italians' task is clear but Shakhtar currently occupy the runners-up spot behind City and won't give it up easily. Victory will guarantee the Ukrainian champions qualification while a point will be enough unless Dinamo beat City.
So it's all to play for on a big final night in Group C and Shakhtar will be confident of avoiding defeat at home, where their only losses in the last 10 Champions League games were both inflicted by Pep Guardiola's City.
Shakhtar grabbed a last-gasp winner over Atalanta when the sides met in October and have followed up with three straight draws to put themselves in the driving seat for the last 16.
Their last four matches in the group have seen both teams score and goals looks the way to go in a fixture that is tricky to call. That's reflected in the prices with the visitors slight favourites at 13-8 (Black Type) and Shakhtar only a shade shorter at 8-5, while the draw is 29-10 at Unibet.
Taking Shakhtar's strong Champions League home record into account, they should secure at least the point they need and the hosts double chance doubled with btts looks a double with some mileage in it at 11-10 with bet365. Likewise, btts and over 2.5 goals should also land at 8-11 with bet365.
Atalanta have won three on the spin ahead of this match but have a tendency to struggle on their travels. Their 3-0 Serie A sucess at Brescia in late November was a first victory in five attempts away from home, and in this competition they've been thumped 4-0 in Zagreb and 5-1 in Manchester.
Shakhtar have netted 2+ in three of their five CL fixtures and look decent value at 97-100 with Marathonbet to repat the feat.
Both sides are not afraid to get stuck in – eight cards were shown in the reverse fixture and, with so much at stake and tempers likely to fray, a minimum of six here can land at 5-6 with bet365.
This UEFA Champions League match between Shakhtar Donetsk and Atalanta will be played on Dec 11, 2019 and kick off at 20:00. Check below for our tipsters best Shakhtar Donetsk vs Atalanta prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.