In a critical game on Tuesday, the Chelsea Blues and Shakhtar Donetsk Minors will face off in Group E competition of the UEFA Champions League. Whichever football club prevails in Ukraine will gain a foothold at the top of the closely matched Group. Both of the teams sport a 1-1-0 record and have compiled four points each thus far.

In their first two games of UEFA play, the Minors were victorious in their opener against FC Nordsjaelland 2-0 and came out drawing with Juventus 1-1. Interesting enough, the Blues' results have been similar, as they also tied Juventus 2-2 but went on to blank FC Nordsjaelland 4-0.

Shakhtar's lineup will clearly not be short of Brazilian talent, as it includes Willian and Fernandinho (teammates of Chelsea's David Luiz, Ramires and Oscar on Brazil's national team), Alex Teixera and forward Luiz Adriano.

Andriy Pyatov will play a key role in between the goal posts for the Minors and will defend a team that's gone a flawless 12-0-0 to begin the league season for skipper Mircea Lucescu. In European competition at the Donbass Arena, Shakhtar is 3-1-0 against English opposition.

Shakhtar's remaining Group E schedule after Tuesday's game includes back-to-back road matchups at Chelsea (Nov. 7), at FC Nordsjaelland (Nov. 20) and a rematch against the defending champions Juventus (Dec. 5).

On the other hand, Chelsea will once again play Shakhtar (Nov. 7), followed by Juventus (Nov. 20) and close it out against FC Nordsjaelland (Dec. 5).

The Blues have lost only two of their last 11 away matchups and have won in five of them. However, the club couldn't pull off a single road victory in last year's group competition.

CLICK HERE to watch Shakhtar Donetsk take on Chelsea in UEFA Champions League competition. Coverage is set to begin on Oct. 23 at 9:45 PM EEST.

Tags
Television, Internatonal soccer, Uefa 2012