Shakhtar under the leadership of Paulo Fonseca met with Roma
On Tuesday, February 21, two more matches of the 1/8 finals of the Champions League will take place: Eintracht will play Napoli, and Liverpool will play Real Madrid. Our teams have not been at this stage of the tournament for a long time. Moreover, today is the sad anniversary of the Ukrainians in the main club tournament in Europe. Exactly five years ago, on February 21, 2018, the Ukrainian club started for the last time at the playoff stage of the tournament.
One step away from the quarterfinals
Then the Pitmen under the leadership of Paulo Fonseca took second place in a difficult group with Manchester City, Napoli and Feyenoord. Shakhtar defeated Feyenoord twice (2:1 away, 3:1 at home), once with the same score (2:1) and in home matches against Napoli and Manchester City. In away matches, the Donetsk team lost to the Italians (0:3) and the British (0:2). With 12 points, Shakhtar lost three points to Manchester City, six points ahead of Napoli and nine points ahead of Feyenoord. Shakhtar’s best scorer in the group stage was Bernard, who scored three goals. Facundo Ferreira and Marlos scored twice in the group matches, Taison and Ismaily scored once each.
Roma finished in first place in their group, ahead of Chelsea in additional indicators – both teams had 11 points each. Atlético and Karabakh were left out of the Champions League by the Italian and English teams.
In the first match, held in Kharkiv, Shakhtar defeated Roma – 2:1. Ferreira and Fred scored goals for Gornyak, while for Di Francesco’s team, as it turned out, the saving goal was scored by Ruslan Malinovsky’s current teammate Dzhengis Under. Saving, because in Rome Roma got a minimal victory – 1:0 (Dzeko scored) – and advanced further due to the away year.
Record holder Lucescu
Fonseca became only the fourth coach who managed to lead the Ukrainian club to the playoff round of the Champions League.
Before the Portuguese specialist, Dynamo twice in the playoffs of the most prestigious club tournament in Europe was brought out by Valery Lobanovsky – in the 1997/1998 and 1998/1999 seasons. Once again, an outstanding coach, together with Dynamo, went to the second group round of the Champions League (there was such a format) – in the 1999/2000 season.
Mircea Lucescu reached the playoff stage three times with Shakhtar – in the 2010/2011, 2012/2013, 2014/2015 seasons. Sergei Rebrov played with Dynamo in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League – in the 2015/2016 season.
The best result of Ukrainian clubs in the Champions League was the semi-finals of Dynamo in the 1998/1999 season, Lucescu and Shakhtar reached the quarter-finals of the tournament in the 2010/2011 season.
Europa League – the ultimate dream?
Since the 2017/2018 season, Ukrainian clubs have reached the playoffs of European cup tournaments seven times. Dynamo and Shakhtar succeeded three times each in the Europa League (2017/2018, 2018/2019 and 2020/2021 – for Dynamo and 2019/2020, 2020/2021 and 2022/2023 – for Shakhtar). For the first time in its history, Dnipro made it to the playoffs of the Conference League (2022/2023).
Source: Sportarena
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
