The Fairytale of Shakhtar Donetsk and their win over the might of Barcelona

Shakhtar Donetsk celebrate a famous win
Shakhtar Donetsk celebrate a famous win

On another chaotic night of Champions League football, there was one result that stood out far more than any other: Shakhtar Donetsk’s 1-0 ‘home’ win against Barcelona. It was a game and result that showed despite the ever-widening gap in football, miracles can still happen.

To begin with, you may be wondering why home has been placed inside inverted commas. Well, while Shakhtar may hail from Donetsk and have been in existence since 1936, they have been homeless for the last nine years due to the ongoing war in Donbas, playing their games in Lviv, Kharkiv and most recently Kyiv.

As a result of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the country has not been deemed safe for international matches, which has resulted in Shakhtar’s Champions League games being played in Hamburg this season, a mere 2,400km from their one-time home ground.

Despite the constant upheaval and distress, as well as the loss of the vast majority of their star players in recent years due to both the ongoing war and the desire to play at a higher level (most recently Mykhailo Mudryk), Shakhtar have remained the dominant side in Ukraine, winning their 14th title of the 21st century last season to earn a seat at Europe’s top table.

A scourge of many a western European heavyweight in years gone by, Shakhtar’s thirst for an upset has not been dimmed by the hardship of war, with only a 95th-minute header from Antonio Rudiger denying them all three points against Real Madrid last season. The location of that game? Warsaw.

They only lost 2-1 to Barca two weeks ago in the Olympic Stadium (their temporary stadium while the Nou Camp is redeveloped), but few would have predicted anything but a win for Xavi’s star-studded side.

Over 50,000 packed the Volksparkstadion to watch the game, likely due to a combination of Hamburg’s lowly current status, Barcelona being in town and Shakhtar’s incredible story.

What they saw was one of the great Champions League shocks in recent times as the Ukrainian champions more than earned a narrow win over the reigning La Liga champions and a five-time winner of the famous trophy.

Barca may have unsurprisingly dominated possession, but they struggled to break down the Shakhtar defence, having a single shot on target to the ‘hosts” four.

The lone goal came from Danylo Sikan, his third in four group games. The 22-year-old striker was one of nine Ukrainians in the line-up, albeit he was not one of just four starters to make the national team squad last time around. That may now change ahead of next week’s Euro qualifiers.

The other two spots in the team were taken by a Georgian in Giorgi Gocholeishvili, who provided the assist for Sikan’s goal, and the mandatory Brazilian in any Shakhtar line-up, the 18-year-old Newerton, who had a late second ruled out for offside.

It is a far cry from the days of Luiz Adriano, Douglas Costa, Fernandinho, Willian and Alex Teixeira but it shows the rather strange connection between Shakhtar and samba football remains even after many of their then-13 Brazilians fled the country in February 2022.

A legend of those glory days, ex-Croatian captain Darijo Srna, has remained at the club as Director of Football in spite of everything, and he has been joined by two other Croats who grew up in the eye of the wars in Yugoslavia, manager Marino Pusic and his assistant Mario Stanic.

Speaking after the game, Pusic, who only took on the job two weeks ago, rightly said the win was “important for Ukrainian football to represent the country in Europe like we did tonight”.

He also made mention of the arduous travelling endured by the team, which often involves 12-14 hour buses back to their base in Kyiv. This only adds to the strength and resolve within the team, as noted by captain Taras Stepanenko prior to the game, who said “spending all this time with each other makes us even stronger. It’s why we are in such good condition. That’s the spirit of our team”.

It’s these things that add to the miracle aspect of the win, which has become increasingly rare in a sport that used to champion itself on sayings like ‘the magic of the cup’. Unlike other sports like rugby union and American football, possession is not 9/10ths of the law in football, and teams can win with unconventional tactics. Not that Shakhtar did so, but you can’t exactly park the bus in a game of rugby, can you?

The night will go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, night in Shakhtar European history for all of these reasons and it gives them a reasonable chance at knockout qualification for the first time since 2017/18. If not, they are guaranteed a spot in the Europa League knockout play-off round, a competition they won in 2009 when it was still known as the UEFA Cup.

Either way, Shakhtar’s European odyssey is set to continue into the new year. What a story it already is and what a story it could still be. It’s one that reminds us of the wonder, belief and hope that sport, and chiefly football, can provide in the darkest of times.