"Dnipro", which is currently experiencing a serious playing crisis in the national championship, managed to get motivated and play 0:0 with "Hibernian" in Scotland and now retains excellent chances of reaching the group stage of the UEFA Cup. It is worth noting that in this game, four leading players were unable to play for "Dnipro" – the disqualified Nazarenko, the injured Meleshchenko, Yezerskyi and Rykun, who was injured in a car accident. However, Kucherevskyi entrusted places in the starting lineup to the young Kotenko, Kravchenko, Andriyenko and, it seems, they justified the expectations.
Donetsk "Metalurh" also pleased its fans, drawing 1:1 with PAOK in Greece. The Donetsk team responded to Salpigidis's goal with an accurate strike from Shyshchenko. And before the return match, it is Donetsk "Metalurh" that can be considered the favorite of this pairing.
As for the game in Donetsk, before the match Mircea Lucescu motivated his players for a serious battle and, it seems, he succeeded at least in the first half. True, before the game a significant loss awaited the miners – Tymoshchuk's temperature rose and he was unable to take part in the duel.
Given this peculiarity, not a single Ukrainian appeared in "Shakhtar's" starting lineup. However, the mood of the miners' legionnaires for this match was also quite fighting-spirited and the team won the first half with a score of 3:0, and could have scored 4-5 more goals...
Already in the first minute of the match, Brandao's run down the left flank ended with a cross into the goalkeeper's area, which Elano finished with a shot from a few meters – 1:0. The champions of Ukraine did not calm down on this. In the 34th minute, Srna's pass found Brandao in the penalty area, who sent the ball with his heel into the far corner from the goalkeeper - 2:0.
True, before that moment the Brazilian should have scored twice more... First he failed to convert a one-on-one with Csernyánszki and shot over the goal. In the next episode, Brandao's shot went just wide of the post.
Marica also lost a good opportunity to score, after whose shot the ball flew just wide of the post. In general, in the first half, "Debrecen's" defense resembled a sieve. Elano, Duljaj, Matuzalem and even the not very technical Brandao were tearing it to pieces.
In the 28th minute, Elano nearly curled the ball into "Debrecen's" goal from a corner, but the goalkeeper cleared it off the goal line, and Lewandowski was a few millimeters short of sending it into the net. Throughout the first half, "Debrecen" conducted two or three attacks that ended with shots wide of the goal.
But "Shakhtar" did score its third goal in the first 45 minutes. In the last minute of the first half, Elano, having beaten two defenders of the Hungarian team, was fouled by Sotmári about 10 meters from the goal and the referee without hesitation awarded a penalty, which Brandao converted.
In the second half, "Shakhtar" calmed down, and this especially applies to the final 15 minutes. The miners could still have scored a few goals, but only one went in. In the 73rd minute, Rat's cross was finished with a header by Vorobey and it was already 4:0.
Brandao could have scored a hat-trick in this game, but, having gone one-on-one with the goalkeeper, he failed to chip him. After "Shakhtar" achieved the score it needed, the guests also had several chances to score, but Lashtuvka played well. However, in the 89th minute even he could not help.
"Debrecen's" quick counterattack ended with a shot by Sidibe, but even this goal could not spoil the joy of victory for the 30 thousand miners' fans, who are already ready for the group stage matches.
"Shakhtar" (Ukraine) - "Debrecen" (Hungary) - 4:1 Goals: Elano 1, Brandao 34, 45 - from a penalty, Vorobey 73, Sidibe 89 "Shakhtar": Lashtuvka, Srna, Lewandowski, Tolga, Rat, Duljaj, Matuzalem (Jadson 76), Elano, Brandao (Bielik 84), Fernandinho, Marica (Vorobey 46) "Debrecen": Csernyánszki, Sotmári, Dombi (Messaros 46), Sandor, Brnović, Komlósi, Bernát, Nikolov (Sidibe 46), Holmoși, Kiss, Eger.
"Hibernian" (Scotland) - "Dnipro" (Ukraine) - 0:0 "Hibernian": Malkowski, Whittaker, Murphy, Smith (Caldwell 46), Hogg, Stewart (Sproule 53), Scott Brown (Glass 70), Thomson, Beuzelin, O'Connor, Shields "Dnipro": Kusliy, Hrytsay, Shelayev, Kornylenko (Balabanov 73), Kotenko, Radchenko, Rusol, Semochko, Andriyenko (Motuz 78), Kravchenko (Kostyshyn 81), Shershun.
PAOK (Greece) - "Metalurh" (Donetsk, Ukraine) - 1:1 Goals: Salpigidis 25, Shyshchenko 68 PAOK: Tochouroglou, Akiel (Fadlalla 75), Karipidis, Megached, Udeze, Vangelis (Maladenis 57), Zagorakis, Charalambous, Egomitis (Fetchin 54), Metzel, Salpigidis "Metalurh": Virt, Gyuzelov, Ne, Florya, Aliuta (Melikyan 90), Zakarlyuka, Zotov, Ristić (Oleksiyenko 83), Tkachenko, Shyshchenko, Kosyrin (Priyemov 89).