Champions League: The night Shakhtar Donetsk matched Real Madrids superstars

Publish date: 2024-05-14

A football stadium packed with neutrals — people not especially invested in which team wins — usually makes for a quiet night.

But in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday it was the opposite. An unusual set of circumstances created an emotional evening in which the crowd audibly shifted its support over the course of 90 minutes.

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The locals who began cheering for the superstars of Real Madrid slowly started to get behind Shakhtar Donetsk, the underdogs from Ukraine’s war-torn east who are playing in Poland while their own country is fighting against Russia’s invasion.

On Monday, missiles hit civilian targets in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, the biggest escalation since the war began. Ten out of the 11 players in Shakhtar’s starting line-up against Madrid were Ukrainian.

Yet the fourth game in Champions League Group F saw Shakhtar take the lead seconds after half-time through Oleksandr Zubkov and hold it until the fifth minute of stoppage time, when Madrid equalised thanks to an Antonio Rudiger header.

Champions League Zubkov puts Shakhtar ahead (Photo: Adam Nurkiewicz/Getty Images)

The result leaves the group hanging in the balance, with Shakhtar a point behind RB Leipzig in second place.

“We are sad because we lost two points, this is a normal emotion, but we must be proud of the team because we showed the Ukrainian people we were fighting from the first second,” said head coach Igor Jovicevic.

“I want to thank all the people in the stadium because this evening was amazing.”

The match started with a display of Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow flag and the Polish red-and-white flag fluttering to the Champions League anthem.

Shakhtar Donetsk v Real Madrid pic.twitter.com/YzpvMfUdXe

— Joey D'Urso (@josephmdurso) October 11, 2022

This was a ‘home’ game for Shakhtar but it is no surprise that there were not many actual Shakhtar fans in attendance.

Stadion Wojska Polskiego is a very long way from Shakhtar’s home. Brussels in Belgium is closer to Warsaw than Donetsk, for example.

Many Polish fans streaming into the stadium wore Real Madrid-branded clothing as they came to see superstars like Karim Benzema, Luka Modric and Vinicius Junior.

“It’s a very big situation for us when Real Madrid comes to Warsaw,” said a Madrid fan from Silesia in the south of Poland. “There are a lot of Polish fans of Real Madrid.”

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Others were simply eager to see some Champions League football as Polish sides very rarely reach the group stage.

Chsmpions League Danylo Sikan speaks to Benzema after the game (Photo: Adam Nurkiewicz/Getty Images)

“I will support (Shakhtar) today because I am proud of Ukraine,” said a Polish fan who bought a ticket to all three home group-stage matches. “It is a big thing that they are here today.”

As well as the block of Madrid fans in the designated away section, there were white shirts and Madrid flags in all four stands, with just a tiny section of noisy Shakhtar fans behind one of the goals.

But as the game progressed in a manner that even the most wildly optimistic would not have expected, the mood began to shift.

Goalkeeper Anatoly Trubin made several excellent saves in the first half, and the crowd started to celebrate each with a roar. Then Zubkov’s header put the Ukrainians ahead just 25 seconds after the break.

Cheering for Shakhtar meant cheering for Ukraine.

Shakhtar doggedly held their lead while piling forward, the mazy runs of superstar forward Mykhaylo Mudryk making him the standout player alongside goalkeeper Trubin.

Gradually, more and more of the crowd began to whistle the Madrid players as they hurried to take free-kicks, and more joined in the chants of “Shakhtar”.

After Rudiger bundled the ball home, in the same stands where Polish supporters had been chanting for Shakhtar, their neighbours jumped up and down, unfurling Madrid flags and banners.

It was an unusual sight to see fans celebrating alongside each other in a football ground. Yet this puts Shakhtar at a competitive disadvantage without the power of a riotously partisan home crowd.

Amid the misery of war, the match felt like a chink of light. Shakhtar not only played but they fought — and they very nearly won.

Shakhtar secured a point against Real Madrid, who have won the European Cup and Champions League on 14 occasions. The result is a remarkable achievement at the best of times given the difference in budgets, and Shakhtar have a chance of qualifying for the next stage. Madrid maintained their unbeaten run and are through to the last-16.

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For Shakhtar, the focus returns to Ukraine’s domestic league, which restarted in August and is also under threat. They are supposed to play against Dynamo Kyiv in the ‘Ukrainian Classico’ this weekend in Lviv, western Ukraine, but it is unclear if the match will take place as cities in the region previously deemed to be safe, feel far less so in the wake of Russia’s latest bombardments.

Poles and Ukrainians, meanwhile, feel closer than ever.

They may be fearful of the winter months ahead but they are increasingly clear in what they stand for: freedom, football, and nights like this in Warsaw.

(Top photo: Mateusz Slodkowski/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)

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