Shakhtar Donetsk’s continued presence in the Champions League is a remarkable achievement for a club that will not be beaten
WORDS Andy Brassell
London was the meeting point, but they had travelled from Kyiv, Lviv, Warsaw, Berlin, Paris and Bounds Green. Arsenal away had been marked as a red-letter day on the Shakhtar Donetsk calendar for a while, not only by those at the club but also those who follow them – making the UK capital a place to meet, to reunite and come together for a common cause. And to fill the stands for a team that has grown to mean so much to so many, representing not just a city or a region on the European stage but now an entire nation too.
It was through the prism of the UEFA Cup (winners in 2008/09) and the Champions League that Shakhtar first made themselves known to football fans across the continent. Now, Europe’s premier club competition holds greater significance than ever for the Ukrainian champions. Homeless for over a decade and unable to play UEFA club competition games within their borders for a third successive season, the Champions League is Shakhtar’s link to the world, the continuation of a glorious past through a testing present and into, they hope, a brighter future.
The club’s very name, Shakhtar, comes from the Ukrainian word for miner, and never have their Stakhanovite roots been more germane. Shakhtar’s continued presence in the Champions League is a triumph of perseverance, of dignity and of fully realising the power of football beyond the playing field. Since taking their place in the group stage in 2022, just over six months after Ukraine had again suffered invasion, the Champions League has served as the terrain where the club and their team can plant a flag to say, “Yes, we’re still here.”
Home, however, has been a succession of different European cities while their own magnificent Donbas Arena lies empty. The journey began in Warsaw, at Legia Warszawa’s stadium, and has continued into Germany, firstly at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion for Champions League home games last season before Shakhtar’s current residency at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen. An impossibly tough situation of constantly being on the road has been used as a way of keeping the plight of many Ukrainians in the spotlight.
When Shakhtar stepped out for their first Champions League home match in Poland against Celtic in September 2022, they were greeted by the Warsaw crowd with friendly curiosity. That changed on 11 October 2022, when Real Madrid hit town. The reigning champions were seconds away from being beaten, until Antonio Rüdiger’s stoppage-time equaliser salvaged a draw for Carlo Ancelotti and co. That night made the locals not just look at Shakhtar but see them – how they might bend but not break. How they rise to a challenge and never back down. Many in the stands that night felt a shift from empathy to support.
Arsenal’s Oleksandr Zinchenko greets fellow Ukrainians after the game (above); Shakhtar players take cover in an air raid shelter after an alert is sounded during a domestic match in Lviv (top right); The team pays tribute to casualties of war in an empty Arena Lviv
Fast-forward 13 months to Hamburg, and the Volksparkstadion roared its approval when Shakhtar did beat the other La Liga behemoths, Barcelona, limiting the five-time European champions to just a single shot on target in a 1-0 victory. It had been a risk to move Champions League home games to a stadium almost twice the size of Legia’s. Even some voices within the club thought it might be overambitious. Yet most of the tickets for the group stage games were sold before the draw had been made. Shakhtar’s efforts to reach out to their hosts and the wider football community beyond were paying off.
They continue to inspire, and not just through their exploits in the Champions League. When Shakhtar visited Arsenal on Matchday 3 in October, their Shakhtar Stalevi amputee team played in a mini-tournament featuring sides from Arsenal, Brighton and Scotland. For the Champions League match itself, children affected by the war came to London with their families to support the team, and some were invited to be player escorts leading the sides out onto the pitch before the start of the game.
Shakhtar fans snap a photo outside Arsenal’s stadium ahead of their Champions League match
Earlier that afternoon, Shakhtar’s vaunted Under-19 team had won their UEFA Youth League match against their Arsenal counterparts at Borehamwood’s Meadow Park. Ever since leaving Donetsk in summer 2014, the club have redoubled the support given to the academy, and incredibly reached the Youth League final in 2015. Mykola Matviyenko, who captained the first team at Arsenal, played in that final nearly nine years ago.
That widescreen vision has been part of the plan for some time. Since their enforced departure from Donetsk, Shakhtar have sought to be a social glue rather than just a football club. The Donbas Arena was used as a humanitarian hub to distribute food and medical packages to those stranded in the region and in need of aid for a couple of years before it became logistically impossible. Now, the mission has expanded as the club attempts to help many of those affected by war from all over Ukraine.
Shakhtar Social does everything from putting on coaching sessions for displaced children to organising housing and medical treatment for those injured in the war. It is one of the reasons Shakhtar are now a club that Ukrainians are proud to see represent them on the world stage, having come to stand for a whole country rather than just a single city in European competition.
“Home has been a succession of different European cities while Shakhtar’s own magnificent Arena lies empty”
Against Arsenal, one of Europe’s best sides and quarter-finalists last season, they faced long odds, but that is nothing new for this club, these players. Darijo Srna, Shakhtar’s sporting director, tells me on the touchline before the game that his hopes are for “a good performance” and he is looking at “the way we play” rather than a particular result. Srna made 536 outings for Shakhtar, winning 27 trophies, and was part of that UEFA Cup-winning side in 2008/09. Having been captain, assistant coach and caretaker boss before settling into his current role, he is no less ambitious than ever but is focused on the long game.
Those aims are apparent in the stands too. As the Champions League anthem fades out and a brief hush reigns, Arsenal’s impressive stadium is quickly filled by chants of “Shakhtar!” from a sold-out away end of 3,500 fans, followed by “Oo-cry-ee-na!” (“Ukraine”). When the match begins, every shuttling run across the turf, every completed pass, feels like a little miracle – never mind the incredible feats the club has achieved since 2022. That’s two Ukrainian Premier League titles, a Ukrainian Cup, progression to the last 16 of the Europa League and that famous win against Barcelona in the Champions League last season.
Arsenal eventually edge out Shakhtar via an unfortunate Dmytro Riznyk own goal, though the goalkeeper later saves a penalty from Leandro Trossard – and his opposite number David Raya needs to make a sharp stop to prevent Pedrinho snaffling a late, late equaliser for the visitors. The return of the midfielder from Atlético Mineiro underlines Shakhtar’s vision for returning to their full selves, with seven Brazilians now in the squad as opposed to a solitary one in 2022. The presence of the Brazilians harks back to the glory years of the 2000s and 2010s, the days of Fernandinho, Willian, Douglas Costa and co, when Shakhtar were a regular force in Europe and the magnificent Donbas Arena the glittering stage for Mircea Lucescu’s exciting side.
A defeat is never welcomed by a club that has been built to win, but Shakhtar have become accustomed to finding hope in adversity. And with the Champions League their stage, that hope and strength continue to inspire far and wide.
Andy Brassell is the author of We Play On: Shakhtar Donetsk’s Fight for Ukraine, Football and Freedom
London was the meeting point, but they had travelled from Kyiv, Lviv, Warsaw, Berlin, Paris and Bounds Green. Arsenal away had been marked as a red-letter day on the Shakhtar Donetsk calendar for a while, not only by those at the club but also those who follow them – making the UK capital a place to meet, to reunite and come together for a common cause. And to fill the stands for a team that has grown to mean so much to so many, representing not just a city or a region on the European stage but now an entire nation too.
It was through the prism of the UEFA Cup (winners in 2008/09) and the Champions League that Shakhtar first made themselves known to football fans across the continent. Now, Europe’s premier club competition holds greater significance than ever for the Ukrainian champions. Homeless for over a decade and unable to play UEFA club competition games within their borders for a third successive season, the Champions League is Shakhtar’s link to the world, the continuation of a glorious past through a testing present and into, they hope, a brighter future.
The club’s very name, Shakhtar, comes from the Ukrainian word for miner, and never have their Stakhanovite roots been more germane. Shakhtar’s continued presence in the Champions League is a triumph of perseverance, of dignity and of fully realising the power of football beyond the playing field. Since taking their place in the group stage in 2022, just over six months after Ukraine had again suffered invasion, the Champions League has served as the terrain where the club and their team can plant a flag to say, “Yes, we’re still here.”
Home, however, has been a succession of different European cities while their own magnificent Donbas Arena lies empty. The journey began in Warsaw, at Legia Warszawa’s stadium, and has continued into Germany, firstly at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion for Champions League home games last season before Shakhtar’s current residency at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen. An impossibly tough situation of constantly being on the road has been used as a way of keeping the plight of many Ukrainians in the spotlight.
When Shakhtar stepped out for their first Champions League home match in Poland against Celtic in September 2022, they were greeted by the Warsaw crowd with friendly curiosity. That changed on 11 October 2022, when Real Madrid hit town. The reigning champions were seconds away from being beaten, until Antonio Rüdiger’s stoppage-time equaliser salvaged a draw for Carlo Ancelotti and co. That night made the locals not just look at Shakhtar but see them – how they might bend but not break. How they rise to a challenge and never back down. Many in the stands that night felt a shift from empathy to support.
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Arsenal’s Oleksandr Zinchenko greets fellow Ukrainians after the game (above); Shakhtar players take cover in an air raid shelter after an alert is sounded during a domestic match in Lviv (top right); The team pays tribute to casualties of war in an empty Arena Lviv
Fast-forward 13 months to Hamburg, and the Volksparkstadion roared its approval when Shakhtar did beat the other La Liga behemoths, Barcelona, limiting the five-time European champions to just a single shot on target in a 1-0 victory. It had been a risk to move Champions League home games to a stadium almost twice the size of Legia’s. Even some voices within the club thought it might be overambitious. Yet most of the tickets for the group stage games were sold before the draw had been made. Shakhtar’s efforts to reach out to their hosts and the wider football community beyond were paying off.
They continue to inspire, and not just through their exploits in the Champions League. When Shakhtar visited Arsenal on Matchday 3 in October, their Shakhtar Stalevi amputee team played in a mini-tournament featuring sides from Arsenal, Brighton and Scotland. For the Champions League match itself, children affected by the war came to London with their families to support the team, and some were invited to be player escorts leading the sides out onto the pitch before the start of the game.
Shakhtar fans snap a photo outside Arsenal’s stadium ahead of their Champions League match
Earlier that afternoon, Shakhtar’s vaunted Under-19 team had won their UEFA Youth League match against their Arsenal counterparts at Borehamwood’s Meadow Park. Ever since leaving Donetsk in summer 2014, the club have redoubled the support given to the academy, and incredibly reached the Youth League final in 2015. Mykola Matviyenko, who captained the first team at Arsenal, played in that final nearly nine years ago.
That widescreen vision has been part of the plan for some time. Since their enforced departure from Donetsk, Shakhtar have sought to be a social glue rather than just a football club. The Donbas Arena was used as a humanitarian hub to distribute food and medical packages to those stranded in the region and in need of aid for a couple of years before it became logistically impossible. Now, the mission has expanded as the club attempts to help many of those affected by war from all over Ukraine.
Shakhtar Social does everything from putting on coaching sessions for displaced children to organising housing and medical treatment for those injured in the war. It is one of the reasons Shakhtar are now a club that Ukrainians are proud to see represent them on the world stage, having come to stand for a whole country rather than just a single city in European competition.
“Home has been a succession of different European cities while Shakhtar’s own magnificent Arena lies empty”
Against Arsenal, one of Europe’s best sides and quarter-finalists last season, they faced long odds, but that is nothing new for this club, these players. Darijo Srna, Shakhtar’s sporting director, tells me on the touchline before the game that his hopes are for “a good performance” and he is looking at “the way we play” rather than a particular result. Srna made 536 outings for Shakhtar, winning 27 trophies, and was part of that UEFA Cup-winning side in 2008/09. Having been captain, assistant coach and caretaker boss before settling into his current role, he is no less ambitious than ever but is focused on the long game.
Those aims are apparent in the stands too. As the Champions League anthem fades out and a brief hush reigns, Arsenal’s impressive stadium is quickly filled by chants of “Shakhtar!” from a sold-out away end of 3,500 fans, followed by “Oo-cry-ee-na!” (“Ukraine”). When the match begins, every shuttling run across the turf, every completed pass, feels like a little miracle – never mind the incredible feats the club has achieved since 2022. That’s two Ukrainian Premier League titles, a Ukrainian Cup, progression to the last 16 of the Europa League and that famous win against Barcelona in the Champions League last season.
Arsenal eventually edge out Shakhtar via an unfortunate Dmytro Riznyk own goal, though the goalkeeper later saves a penalty from Leandro Trossard – and his opposite number David Raya needs to make a sharp stop to prevent Pedrinho snaffling a late, late equaliser for the visitors. The return of the midfielder from Atlético Mineiro underlines Shakhtar’s vision for returning to their full selves, with seven Brazilians now in the squad as opposed to a solitary one in 2022. The presence of the Brazilians harks back to the glory years of the 2000s and 2010s, the days of Fernandinho, Willian, Douglas Costa and co, when Shakhtar were a regular force in Europe and the magnificent Donbas Arena the glittering stage for Mircea Lucescu’s exciting side.
A defeat is never welcomed by a club that has been built to win, but Shakhtar have become accustomed to finding hope in adversity. And with the Champions League their stage, that hope and strength continue to inspire far and wide.
Andy Brassell is the author of We Play On: Shakhtar Donetsk’s Fight for Ukraine, Football and Freedom
London was the meeting point, but they had travelled from Kyiv, Lviv, Warsaw, Berlin, Paris and Bounds Green. Arsenal away had been marked as a red-letter day on the Shakhtar Donetsk calendar for a while, not only by those at the club but also those who follow them – making the UK capital a place to meet, to reunite and come together for a common cause. And to fill the stands for a team that has grown to mean so much to so many, representing not just a city or a region on the European stage but now an entire nation too.
It was through the prism of the UEFA Cup (winners in 2008/09) and the Champions League that Shakhtar first made themselves known to football fans across the continent. Now, Europe’s premier club competition holds greater significance than ever for the Ukrainian champions. Homeless for over a decade and unable to play UEFA club competition games within their borders for a third successive season, the Champions League is Shakhtar’s link to the world, the continuation of a glorious past through a testing present and into, they hope, a brighter future.
The club’s very name, Shakhtar, comes from the Ukrainian word for miner, and never have their Stakhanovite roots been more germane. Shakhtar’s continued presence in the Champions League is a triumph of perseverance, of dignity and of fully realising the power of football beyond the playing field. Since taking their place in the group stage in 2022, just over six months after Ukraine had again suffered invasion, the Champions League has served as the terrain where the club and their team can plant a flag to say, “Yes, we’re still here.”
Home, however, has been a succession of different European cities while their own magnificent Donbas Arena lies empty. The journey began in Warsaw, at Legia Warszawa’s stadium, and has continued into Germany, firstly at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion for Champions League home games last season before Shakhtar’s current residency at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen. An impossibly tough situation of constantly being on the road has been used as a way of keeping the plight of many Ukrainians in the spotlight.
When Shakhtar stepped out for their first Champions League home match in Poland against Celtic in September 2022, they were greeted by the Warsaw crowd with friendly curiosity. That changed on 11 October 2022, when Real Madrid hit town. The reigning champions were seconds away from being beaten, until Antonio Rüdiger’s stoppage-time equaliser salvaged a draw for Carlo Ancelotti and co. That night made the locals not just look at Shakhtar but see them – how they might bend but not break. How they rise to a challenge and never back down. Many in the stands that night felt a shift from empathy to support.
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Arsenal’s Oleksandr Zinchenko greets fellow Ukrainians after the game (above); Shakhtar players take cover in an air raid shelter after an alert is sounded during a domestic match in Lviv (top right); The team pays tribute to casualties of war in an empty Arena Lviv
Fast-forward 13 months to Hamburg, and the Volksparkstadion roared its approval when Shakhtar did beat the other La Liga behemoths, Barcelona, limiting the five-time European champions to just a single shot on target in a 1-0 victory. It had been a risk to move Champions League home games to a stadium almost twice the size of Legia’s. Even some voices within the club thought it might be overambitious. Yet most of the tickets for the group stage games were sold before the draw had been made. Shakhtar’s efforts to reach out to their hosts and the wider football community beyond were paying off.
They continue to inspire, and not just through their exploits in the Champions League. When Shakhtar visited Arsenal on Matchday 3 in October, their Shakhtar Stalevi amputee team played in a mini-tournament featuring sides from Arsenal, Brighton and Scotland. For the Champions League match itself, children affected by the war came to London with their families to support the team, and some were invited to be player escorts leading the sides out onto the pitch before the start of the game.
Shakhtar fans snap a photo outside Arsenal’s stadium ahead of their Champions League match
Earlier that afternoon, Shakhtar’s vaunted Under-19 team had won their UEFA Youth League match against their Arsenal counterparts at Borehamwood’s Meadow Park. Ever since leaving Donetsk in summer 2014, the club have redoubled the support given to the academy, and incredibly reached the Youth League final in 2015. Mykola Matviyenko, who captained the first team at Arsenal, played in that final nearly nine years ago.
That widescreen vision has been part of the plan for some time. Since their enforced departure from Donetsk, Shakhtar have sought to be a social glue rather than just a football club. The Donbas Arena was used as a humanitarian hub to distribute food and medical packages to those stranded in the region and in need of aid for a couple of years before it became logistically impossible. Now, the mission has expanded as the club attempts to help many of those affected by war from all over Ukraine.
Shakhtar Social does everything from putting on coaching sessions for displaced children to organising housing and medical treatment for those injured in the war. It is one of the reasons Shakhtar are now a club that Ukrainians are proud to see represent them on the world stage, having come to stand for a whole country rather than just a single city in European competition.
“Home has been a succession of different European cities while Shakhtar’s own magnificent Arena lies empty”
Against Arsenal, one of Europe’s best sides and quarter-finalists last season, they faced long odds, but that is nothing new for this club, these players. Darijo Srna, Shakhtar’s sporting director, tells me on the touchline before the game that his hopes are for “a good performance” and he is looking at “the way we play” rather than a particular result. Srna made 536 outings for Shakhtar, winning 27 trophies, and was part of that UEFA Cup-winning side in 2008/09. Having been captain, assistant coach and caretaker boss before settling into his current role, he is no less ambitious than ever but is focused on the long game.
Those aims are apparent in the stands too. As the Champions League anthem fades out and a brief hush reigns, Arsenal’s impressive stadium is quickly filled by chants of “Shakhtar!” from a sold-out away end of 3,500 fans, followed by “Oo-cry-ee-na!” (“Ukraine”). When the match begins, every shuttling run across the turf, every completed pass, feels like a little miracle – never mind the incredible feats the club has achieved since 2022. That’s two Ukrainian Premier League titles, a Ukrainian Cup, progression to the last 16 of the Europa League and that famous win against Barcelona in the Champions League last season.
Arsenal eventually edge out Shakhtar via an unfortunate Dmytro Riznyk own goal, though the goalkeeper later saves a penalty from Leandro Trossard – and his opposite number David Raya needs to make a sharp stop to prevent Pedrinho snaffling a late, late equaliser for the visitors. The return of the midfielder from Atlético Mineiro underlines Shakhtar’s vision for returning to their full selves, with seven Brazilians now in the squad as opposed to a solitary one in 2022. The presence of the Brazilians harks back to the glory years of the 2000s and 2010s, the days of Fernandinho, Willian, Douglas Costa and co, when Shakhtar were a regular force in Europe and the magnificent Donbas Arena the glittering stage for Mircea Lucescu’s exciting side.
A defeat is never welcomed by a club that has been built to win, but Shakhtar have become accustomed to finding hope in adversity. And with the Champions League their stage, that hope and strength continue to inspire far and wide.
Andy Brassell is the author of We Play On: Shakhtar Donetsk’s Fight for Ukraine, Football and Freedom
Injured servicemen who have lost limbs are finding a new lease of life in Shakhtar’s amputee team
WORDS Jade Craddock
There are few, if any, team names as fitting as that of Shakhtar Stalevi. Roughly translating as ‘Made of Steel’, it perfectly encapsulates the mental and physical fortitude of the first amputee team founded by a Ukrainian Premier League side.
Out of the tragic circumstances of war, Shakhtar sought to create something positive by recruiting a team of amputee players in order to help their rehabilitation and facilitate an active life. Thus, in February this year, Shakhtar Stalevi were born.
Despite their span of ages, ranging from 22 to 51, and their backgrounds, including a construction foreman and an entrepreneur, the squad are united by their circumstances, they were all wounded while serving their country. Now they wear the orange and black of Shakhtar, replete with a club crest boasting a trident symbolising Ukraine, a sunlit horizon representing a new dawn and the crossed hammers pointing to Shakhtar’s mining roots; all of which gain added significance when donned by these Ukrainian men of steel.
“Such initiatives are very important because soldiers with amputated limbs need to be socialised so that they get used to civilian life,” says Shakhtar Stalevi midfielder Valentyn Romaniuk. “Since the formation of the team, the players have shown significant progress. I hope that other teams will join and form their own teams, leading to the creation of an amputee football league in the future.”
Insight
'Made of steel'
Injured servicemen who have lost limbs are finding a new lease of life in Shakhtar’s amputee team
WORDS Jade Craddock
There are few, if any, team names as fitting as that of Shakhtar Stalevi. Roughly translating as ‘Made of Steel’, it perfectly encapsulates the mental and physical fortitude of the first amputee team founded by a Ukrainian Premier League side.
Out of the tragic circumstances of war, Shakhtar sought to create something positive by recruiting a team of amputee players in order to help their rehabilitation and facilitate an active life. Thus, in February this year, Shakhtar Stalevi were born.
Despite their span of ages, ranging from 22 to 51, and their backgrounds, including a construction foreman and an entrepreneur, the squad are united by their circumstances, they were all wounded while serving their country. Now they wear the orange and black of Shakhtar, replete with a club crest boasting a trident symbolising Ukraine, a sunlit horizon representing a new dawn and the crossed hammers pointing to Shakhtar’s mining roots; all of which gain added significance when donned by these Ukrainian men of steel.
“Such initiatives are very important because soldiers with amputated limbs need to be socialised so that they get used to civilian life,” says Shakhtar Stalevi midfielder Valentyn Romaniuk. “Since the formation of the team, the players have shown significant progress. I hope that other teams will join and form their own teams, leading to the creation of an amputee football league in the future.”
Insight
'Made of steel'
Injured servicemen who have lost limbs are finding a new lease of life in Shakhtar’s amputee team
WORDS Jade Craddock
There are few, if any, team names as fitting as that of Shakhtar Stalevi. Roughly translating as ‘Made of Steel’, it perfectly encapsulates the mental and physical fortitude of the first amputee team founded by a Ukrainian Premier League side.
Out of the tragic circumstances of war, Shakhtar sought to create something positive by recruiting a team of amputee players in order to help their rehabilitation and facilitate an active life. Thus, in February this year, Shakhtar Stalevi were born.
Despite their span of ages, ranging from 22 to 51, and their backgrounds, including a construction foreman and an entrepreneur, the squad are united by their circumstances, they were all wounded while serving their country. Now they wear the orange and black of Shakhtar, replete with a club crest boasting a trident symbolising Ukraine, a sunlit horizon representing a new dawn and the crossed hammers pointing to Shakhtar’s mining roots; all of which gain added significance when donned by these Ukrainian men of steel.
“Such initiatives are very important because soldiers with amputated limbs need to be socialised so that they get used to civilian life,” says Shakhtar Stalevi midfielder Valentyn Romaniuk. “Since the formation of the team, the players have shown significant progress. I hope that other teams will join and form their own teams, leading to the creation of an amputee football league in the future.”
