Home game abroad: Shakhtar Donetsk is playing in the Champions League this season in Gelsenkirchen.
Photo: imago/Nico Herbertz
This Tuesday Bayern are coming to the Arena at Schalke again. For local sports fans, this is a nice change from everyday life, which currently takes place between Ulm and Elversberg and no longer between Munich and Milan. The fact that the big European football circus is visiting Gelsenkirchen more often this season is not due to FC Schalke 04. The arena on Berger Feld in the Erle district serves as a venue for FK Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League. Atalanta Bergamo and the Young Boys from Bern were already there, now it’s against Bayern Munich.
That’s nice for the Schalke fans and not so nice for the Ukrainian fans, who haven’t experienced their club at home for a long time. What is Schalke’s sadness compared to Shakhtar’s tragedy? The third-place team in the Premjer Liha has been playing in exile for a good ten years, sometimes in Lviv, Kharkiv, Kiev, Warsaw or Hamburg. This season Gelsenkirchen is granting asylum in the premier class. The Russian attack on Ukraine officially dates from February 24, 2022, but the war has been raging in the east of the country since spring 2014. The Donbas Arena, the venue for the European Championship semi-final between Portugal and Spain in 2012, was badly damaged by artillery fire and is now under the control of pro-Russian separatists.
Circus Europe
Photo: Private
Previously simply the national champions’ cup, today the Champions League: a staged spectacle and football’s money-printing machine. Sven Goldmann looks ahead to the coming matchday.
The Donbas Arena was inaugurated in 2009, coinciding with the local club’s greatest success. At that time, Shakhtar was crowned the last winner in the history of the UEFA Cup in Istanbul. In the final there was a 2-1 win over Werder Bremen. It was the first ever European Cup triumph for a Ukrainian team, although Shakhtar was more of a Brazilian team with Eastern European strength. The man who stood out above all was the Croatian defensive strategist Darijo Srna – in front of him, on May 20, 2009, five Brazilians in bright orange jerseys whirled across the lawn of the Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium. Luiz Adriano scored the first goal and his compatriot Jadson the second, with Werder’s Naldo equalizing in between – a Brazilian, of course.
In those carefree days of the summer of 2009, Shakhtar’s President Rinat Akhmetov not-so-secretly dreamed of winning the Champions League. Akhmetov’s middle name is “oligarch.” He made his fortune after the collapse of the Soviet Union and used it to finance Donetsk’s small football miracle.
With the outbreak of war, the success story came to an end. Akhmetov lost a fortune in Donbas, but remained loyal to his club and enabled him to tour Europe. Srna, the captain in 2009, is now the club’s sporting director. By the way, he describes himself as a Schalke fan and hopes to see his favorite German club play in the European Cup soon. On Friday, the Gelsenkirchen second division footballers already won in Paderborn.
We-don’t-give-each-other anything
Our Christmas campaign not only brings the joy of reading, but also warmth and festivity into the house. With a three-month trial subscription you get a pair of left socks from Socks with attitude and a bottle of sparkling wine Social Sector – perfect for a relaxed winter time. A gift that informs, warms and supports the dropout program EXIT Germany supports. Order a We Don’t Give Each Other Gift now.
judi bola sbobet88 sbobet88 link sbobet