SHATKAR TAKE UEFA GLORY

 

Before this season, Shatkar Donetsk had never reached a European final. Tradditionally Ukraine's number 2 club team, it started up in 1936. In recent years, they've become a familiar name on the European scene though, reaching the Champions League group stages on a regular basis. Werder Bremen are a more traditional name and though they'd never reached the UEFA Cup final before the start of this season, they had previously won the old Cup Winners Cup in 1992 with Otto Rehhagel as their gaffer. They aren't traditionally seen as one of the Bundesliga's creme de la creme but have picked up enough domestic trophies over the years.

This time around, the two sides were to face each other in the UEFA Cup final at the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium. It wasn't exactly the expected lineup for the match, though ITV's commentators described it as a "solid middleweight clash" pre-match. Thomas Scharf, a substitute defender in the '92 CWC final, was now Werder's gaffer. As for Shatkar, well they, like most Ukraine Premier League teams, they are loaded with Brazilians who are hoping to use Eastern Europe as a side route into the major leagues. Having no British presence in this match was certainly a dissapointment, Man City the last team to fall in the quarter finals. What we were given looked to be a decent enough encounter though.

The opening minutes of the match suggested that we'd be in for an end to end game, but once it settled down it turned into more of a midfield tussle. Werder then came close to getting the opener but their shot went well wide and at the other end Luiz Adriano picked up on a 25th minute long ball and lobbed the Werder goalie to open the scoring for Schalke. Just as Shatkar threatened to take over though, Werder were given a 35th minute free kick. Naldo slammed it, the Shatkar goalie should have dealt with it, but didn't! 1-1. So far, there was no way of separating the two teams and this was proving to be a pretty tasty affair between two relatively unknown teams.

Shatkar were the more attacking team early on in the second half but their efforts were nothing that the Werder goalie couldn't handle. The team in orange looked by far the stronger side but they were unable to do so. As the game went on, Werder started to get their act together again but Shatkar's goalie was proving more reliable now. Both teams seemed to wind down during the closing stages of the half though, as if neither side felt like winning the match in normal time. Sure enough, the game cruised to a halt and the match was headed for extra time. Still, there was no tellling which team would win the trophy, the hope was that extra time would at least re-energise the teams.

Sure enough, Shatkar at least looked recharged in the first period of extra time, battering the Werder goal at will though the goalie stood firm. That was untill the 97th minute when a Darijo Srna cross left Jadson with enough space to slide the ball under him. Werder could have equalised immediately, but failed. Shatkar went on to becomethe stronger side throughout the rest of the half and could have gone two goals up but the game remained in the balance. Overall, Werder were the side that needed to get their act together with just a mini-half remaining and put on some fresh legs for the task. Whether they'd be of any use remained to be seen.

In the second period of extra time, Shatkar remained strong, even taking the time to take the mickey with an exaggerated injury problem. Werder were then the main attacking side and for Shatkar it was all hands to the pumps. Werder kept pouring the men forward but kept missing chances, and if anything were starting to look knackered. Had they given up? Seemingly not. On loan Chelsea assasin Claudio PIzzaro did hit the net with only a few minutes on the clock. The ref disallowed the goal for an earlier foul though. The match went into injury time and it looked as though Werder had finally given up. Sure enough, it was the Shatkar players that were celebrating when the whistle blew.

So, Shatkar Donetsk are the winners of the 2009 UEFA Cup, the last time the tournament will be played as we currently know it before it's renamed the Europa League. What sort of winners are they? Interesting ones. For starters they've beaten their rivals Dynamo Kiev to the distinction of being the first Ukranian winners of any competition since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991. So what now for them? Well the UEFA Cup winners are always tipped as a team to watch out for in the Champions League in the following season, but Zenit St Petersburg didn't exactly burn down the house this season. Chances are, this'll be a brief burst of glory, but congratulations to them anyway.

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