Shakhtar Donetsk's European odyssey continues as they prepare to face Crystal Palace in the Conference League semi-finals, with the club still grappling with the effects of the war in Ukraine. The first leg takes place on Thursday in Krakow, Poland, where Shakhtar have been hosting their European home matches due to the ongoing conflict.
Arda Turan's Unlikely Appointment
Serhii Palkin, Shakhtar's chief executive since 2004, was initially unsure whether former Barcelona and Atlético Madrid midfielder Arda Turan would accept the managerial role last May. Turan had just left his first managerial post at Eyüpspor in Turkey. However, Palkin was pleasantly surprised. “Arda is a special guy,” Palkin said. “For him to be a coach in Turkey is being in his comfort zone. He doesn’t want to be there. When I called him, he said: ‘I want to come, I want to come. I want to sign immediately.’ He doesn’t care about the war, he’s not afraid, nothing. And he’s always using a lot of energy. You will see on Thursday evening. He’s running on the line, I think three to four kilometres every game.”
A Marathon Season
If Crystal Palace's players are feeling the rigours of a long season, they should consider Shakhtar's journey. Turan's side played their first Europa League qualifier in Ljubljana on 10 July and have since contested 15 matches in Europe, dropping into the Conference League after losing on penalties to Panathinaikos. Their “home” fixtures have been in Krakow, nearly 1,000 miles from Donetsk and a 10-hour drive from their training base in Kyiv. The trip to Alkmaar for the quarter-final second leg against AZ took almost 24 hours.
“If you bring even Guardiola to Shakhtar now, or Mourinho, or Jürgen Klopp, I don’t know how he will manage this situation,” said sporting director Dario Srna, a veteran of Shakhtar's 2009 Europa League win. “Believe me, it’s just mentality. For example, after the Palace game, we will go by bus for four hours to one city in Poland, and after that we have to train, and we will travel at four o’clock in the morning directly to Kyiv. We will arrive the next day, I think, 4pm in Kyiv. Saturday training, Sunday evening derby against Dynamo Kyiv, and immediately after the game at Dynamo Kyiv, we are travelling the same way, but just back, and going to London. This is one case and it’s been like this for four years.”
Resilience and Results
Despite the challenges, Shakhtar have scored 59 goals in 25 league matches under Turan, closing in on the title after finishing third last season. The club reached the Europa League semi-finals in 2016 and 2020 before Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 changed everything. Most foreign players left under special Fifa regulations, and Shakhtar failed in a claim for up to €50m in compensation. “We lost 14 players and coaching staff,” Srna said. “Fifa killed us, and we started to build a new Ukrainian team. In the first season, we played with 99% of Ukrainian players. The year after that, we started to buy Brazilians again.”
There are now 14 Brazilians on the squad, including teenage playmaker Isaque Silva, who arrived from Fluminense in August. Shakhtar previously developed stars like Fernandinho and Willian, and the sale of Kevin to Fulham for a club-record £35m last summer proved the model still works. “We believe in our model,” Palkin said. “Yes, we lost our home, but we didn’t lose our identity. We have been dealing with Brazilian players for more than 20 years. And for all these years, we have big, big trust. Because they understand Shakhtar is a bridge to go to top European leagues. When we are negotiating with them even today, we are not selling them comfort because everybody understands the world.”
Youth Development and Future Hopes
Several academy players left after the invasion, but Shakhtar have also succeeded in developing local talent. Midfielders Viktor Tsukanov and Denys Smetana are tipped to follow Georgiy Sudakov and Mykhailo Mudryk. Srna hopes they can help Shakhtar reach the final of a competition he initially doubted. “When we start to play in the Conference League, I said: ‘I don’t like the Conference League,’” he said with a laugh. “But when you arrive in the semi-final, you realise that you did an amazing job. Not just for our players, for our country. The whole of Ukraine will watch our game on Thursday. Because it’s something positive in our country.”
Srna said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be invited to attend the final in Leipzig if Shakhtar advance past Palace. Palkin sees the tie as another opportunity to remind the world of Ukraine's plight. “We have many, many years of war and people living in Europe, living in the USA and the rest of the world, maybe they’re a little bit tired about this war,” he said. “But this is a tricky situation because when we are playing our European competitions, we are always trying to mention what’s going on in Ukraine, because it’s not possible to ignore or to be tired. This is our key point. We need to resolve this situation all together and we need to conclude peace as soon as possible, but a fair peace.”
