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Donetsk players cheer after the goal by Danylo Sikan. picture alliance

What Ukrainian team's stunning Champions League win means

By Alyssa Clang | Last updated 11/10/23

The group stage of the Champions League tends to throw out surprising fixtures as the best soccer teams from across Europe challenge one another for a place in the knockout rounds.

This season, for instance, Denmark's FC Copenhagen will play Turkey's Galatasaray, and Switzerland's Young Boys will face Serbia's Red Star Belgrade. One wouldn't normally expect to see these teams in the same competition, let alone the same game, but the Champions League allows for intriguing cross-European matchups.

Perennial favorite Barcelona found itself in one of these games earlier this week against Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk at the Volksparkstadion in Germany.

The Blaugrana were expected to win handily, but they lost 1-0 to Shakhtar Donetsk. For the Ukrainian team, the win was an eye-opener cheered by the team's global fan base.

⚽️The Ukrainian champion, #Shakhtar Donetsk, defeated the Spanish #Barcelona with a score of 1-0 in the fourth round of the #ChampionsLeague. pic.twitter.com/RT4KbdJ3xl
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) November 7, 2023

Shakhtar isn't just any Ukrainian soccer team. It's the reigning Ukrainian champion — and it has achieved that title against staggering odds amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

Shakhtar is based in Donetsk, one of the largest cities in Ukraine's Donbas region. It has endured violence for nearly a decade and has been unable to play home games in its Donetsk stadium since 2014. When war broke out in the region in 2022, Shakhtar lost the majority of its foreign players and was forced to move its home games to Poland and Germany.

Shakhtar has a few foreign players who were willing to brave the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, but most of its roster is composed of young Ukrainian prospects. Despite this disadvantage, Shakhtar clinched the Ukrainian soccer title during the 2022-23 season and earned itself a spot in the UEFA Champions League. It was drawn into a difficult group featuring Spain's Barcelona, Portugal's Porto and Belgium's Antwerp, but it managed to hold its own, sitting in third after four games and just three points shy of the top spot.

It was one of Shakhtar's hometown youth players who sealed its stunning victory over Barcelona. Danylo Sikan, a 22-year-old from the Zhytomyr Oblast, scored the winning goal in fine style in a starting 11 featuring nine homegrown Ukrainians.

Shakhtar's victory was hailed as "only the beginning" by coach Marino Pusic.

"It is important for Ukrainian football to represent the country like we did tonight," he said, per the Economic Times.

While fans in Ukraine hailed Shakhtar's mettle, many bristled at the reaction of the Russian media. Some Russian outlets claimed Shakhtar as a Russian team after its victory over Barcelona.

Russians called Shakhtar (Donetsk) a Russian football club after it won a match against Barcelona.

Sports has never been beyond politics, and Russia always steals and takes credit for someone’s achievements.

Shakhtar has never been and never will be a Russian football club.… pic.twitter.com/kGQrHDu31p
— Victoria (@victoriaslog) November 8, 2023

It's another unsettling reminder of how closely sports and politics are intertwined around the globe.

For Shakhtar and its fans, though, what's most important is what comes next: continuing to represent Ukraine in the Champions League. With two games remaining, it still has a chance at qualifying for the knockout rounds — and even if it can't, it still has a shot at moving forward in the Europa League instead.

"If we achieve [the last 16 of the Champions League], it would be fantastic," Pusic said. "If not, then to stay in Europe would also be a great achievement — amazing achievement, even —for this club under those circumstances."

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