Shakhtar shock Barca

Photo: Stephen Gormley (Red Eye Photo Agency)

Shakhtar Donetsk defeated Barcelona at “home” 1-0 in their fourth Champions League Group match

While the war continues on in Ukraine, Shakhtar Donetsk have made their home this season in Hamburg in northern Germany. Over 50,000 turned up to watch their match against Barcelona at the Volksparkstadion just outside Hamburg’s city centre. A lot of the crowd came to have a look at Xavi Hernandez’s edition of Barcelona but maybe also with the hope of seeing a European giant killing.

The match started how you would have expected with Barca dominating possession. Shakhtar however were very organised and were hitting Barcelona very hard on the break with their wingers Zubkov and Newerton keeping Alonso and Cancelo on their toes. Even though Barcelona had almost 70% of the ball it was Shakhtar in the first half that looked the more dangerous on the break.

Barcelona were hitting shots from outside the box just going wide and over the bar from Gavi and Lewandowski.

But on the 40th minute the Ukraine side broke down the right hand side and Gocholeishvili whipped in a beautiful cross which Danylo Sikan met with a looping header to beat Barcelona captain and keeper Ter Stegen to make it 1-0 on the night.

It made for a frantic second half. However for all of Barcelona’s possession they just could not get the equaliser. They had many attempts but only managed one on target with over 98 minutes played on the night.

It was an historical result for Shakhtar with the large crowd in the Volksparkstadion really appreciating the effort from the Ukrainian side on the night.

With two big games left for Shakhtar in the Champions League Group stage you would not bet against them making it to the last 16.