Guide Euro-2012 in Ukraine :: Euro 2012 in Donetsk :: Football club Shakhtar

FC Shakhtar

Ukrainian Cup 1992-1995

First three leagues in independent Ukraine Shakhtar's coach was Valeriy Yaryomchenko. The squad changed dramatically. Best players left the club.

FC Shakhtar could rival for the League gold in the first Ukrainian League. But a nettlesome home draw against FC Tavriya Simferopol secured only 3 standing, but Shakhtar lost to FC Dynamo - 2:3 in the third place match.

FC Shakhtar won their first League silverware in Season 1994-95.

Ukrainian League 1994-95 brought to Shakhtar the fourth position and the next season 1995-96 was the most disappointing one - 10th position in the league. Though Donetsk won Ukrainian Cup 1995.

1996-2006

October 11, 1996, Rinat Akhmetov was appointed the President of FC Shakhtar Donetsk, who secured the further prosperity and development of the club. The club has been keeping the leading position in Ukarine since then keeping first or second standing (second position in the league is considered as a mishap). FC Shakhtar have twice won Ukrainian Champions titles, Domestic Cup 1997, 2001, 2002, 2004 and Super-Cup 2005. The President has been doing whatever possible to promote the club to the European level.

European Cups have long been the Achilles' heel of Shakhtar. After a success in 1997 against Vicenze Italy in the Round of 16 of CWC FC Shakhtar found challenging to confront quite regular clubs like Zurich, Roda; in 2001, 2002, 2003 - CSKA Sofia, Austria and Dinamo Bucuresti.

Though FC Shakhtar under Viktor Prokopenko tried the taste of the Champions League in 2000 after a victory over Slavia Praha. FC Shakhtar met Europe and Europe met Shakhtar.

In 2000 FC Shakhtar signed the first foreign player from - a Romanian Marian Aliuta. Each year they contracted international players from Nigeria, Croatia, Romania, Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro and Macedonia.

A foreign coach, an Italian Nevio Scala, secured first Ukrainian gold for Shakhtar. After that a German Bernd Shuster coached Donetsk and now - a Romanian Mircea Lucescu.

2007-2010

After the season 2006-07 which was not quite successful in terms of the national competitions (just silver medals of the Ukrainian League and the country’s Cup runners-up) the impressive season 2007–08 followed. In 2008 FC Shakhtar won the home treble: the Country’s League, the Cup and the Super Cup. Fernandinho added another record to the club’s collection – he scored the 1000th goal in the Ukrainian League match played against FC Kharkiv.

Nevertheless, the first half of the season 2008–09 cannot be called a fairy tale. In the UKrainian League FC Shakhtar was second to Dynamo Kyiv, its major competitor; the club also missed out on the play-off stage of the UEFA Champions League (in spite of perfect chances to become the group winner instead of the club’s actual third position and its being entitled to claim the UEFA Cup). Though, as it turned out later, the year 2009 became the landmark after the history-making win of the Miners in the European arena.

After FC Shakhtar cleared the French Olimpique from the last UEFA Cup tournament (it was rearranged into the UEFA Europa League the following year), the Miners from Donetsk faced their archrival, Dynamo Kyiv, in the semifinal. The 1:1 away tie and the 2:1 home win opened the doors for the Miners to the European Cup final. FC Shakhtar had to measure its strength against Werder’s. The Miners won deservedly with the 2:1 score. The two goals were scored by Luiz Adriano and Jadson (extra time). For the first time in its history FC Shakhtar Donetsk won the European club tournament! It happened in the spring. And in the autumn…