Timișoara 0:0 Shakhtar
Let's recall how Shakhtar started last season. With a loss to Lviv, a draw with Karpaty, and a whole series of lackluster matches that took the Donetsk side to ninth place in the Ukrainian championship standings. How did that season end? With the miners winning the UEFA Cup.
Now the question: why should Shakhtar have started this season better? What grounds were there for that? It seems there were none – the same coach, the same players, and a similar training process and preparation for the season.
With these words I am trying to somehow justify Shakhtar for their early exit from the Champions League. To be honest, in any playing condition the players of the Ukrainian vice-champion should have gotten past Timișoara, whose total player value according to transfermarkt.de amounts to slightly less than what Rinat Akhmetov wanted to receive from the sale of one Chyhrynskyi to Barcelona.
Before the game, Mircea Lucescu was adjustedexclusively optimistic. "We cannot imagine that Shakhtar will be left without the Champions League," the miners' manager declared before the match. But if you think about it, what else could he have said given such a balance of forces? However, it is very hard to imagine Lucescu not fearing an opponent that nearly beat his team just a week earlier.
Shakhtar started the match in question the same way as the home leg – with an assault on Pantilimon's goal. However, apart from territorial advantage and combination play, in the first 25 minutes the Donetsk side had nothing to offer Timișoara.
Lucescu's team created the first dangerous moment only in the 27th minute, when Luís Adriano, jumping high, in a duel with Eder sent the ball over the crossbar of the Romanian goal. However, no good without bad – in a struggle with a Timișoara defender, the Brazilian forward of the miners broke his nose and was forced to stop playing. Aghahowa appeared on the field in his place.
Anticipating events, I will write that in this match Julius proved to all the fans the reasons for his being at a mid-table club in the Turkish championship. The Nigerian didn't spoil the porridge, but in matches like the one against Timișoara, more is required of a forward from a favorite club than "not spoiling the porridge." And for that "more," the miners' number 77 is at least for now not capable. Looking worthy in a Champions League match is somewhat harder than scoring against teams of Kryvbas's level.
However, the game continued, and Shakhtar continued to press. Another chance to open the scoring was had by Oleksiy Hai, but the ball after his header from outside the penalty area went over the goal.
As for Timișoara, they too could have scored in the first half. Bucur slipped past Srna and Kucher down the left flank and shot from a tight angle – the ball hit the net, but from the outside.
Instead, the second half, oddly enough, was started better by the Romanian team. Bucur stood out very much, easily beating the Donetsk defenders both outside the penalty area and inside it. In one such moment, only Kucher's selfless actions saved the miners from a goal. Arman Karamyan was also active, and during corners that arose near Pyatov's goal, the Togolese Nibombe created danger in the penalty area.
However, after just 10 minutes Shakhtar regained their playing advantage, only the chances for the orange-and-blacks did not increase from this. The miners seemed to be doing everything right, but either the final pass or the final shot was sorely lacking.
In such a situation it was extremely interesting how Lucescu's team would conduct the assault on the goal in the final minutes. And it turned out very, very dangerous for the Romanians. Aghahowa shot dangerously, Fernandinho struck from long distance. All – wide of the goal.
And then Pantilimon began to work wonders. To save his goal after shots from Chyhrynskyi and, from a free kick, Srna, the Romanian keeper had to show all his incredible reflexes…
Apparently, there really do exist some football traditions that can only be violated by showing some kind of superhuman effort. Shakhtar could not show such superhuman effort and played a match with a score extremely unusual for themselves.
However, last season proved that elimination from the Champions League is not yet a European cup collapse. It only means that the club will be short of considerable money that the main European cup brings. And one can perform successfully in a tournament one tier lower. All the more so, with such play as today, we fans will not see anything better from the miners than in last year's matches against Sporting.