Funny name aside, Shakhtar Donetsk are veritable footballing monsters, albeit, unknown monsters. They unassumingly topped group H in the first stage of the tournament, allowing the Ukrainians to avoid Barcelona for the first knockout stage. UEFA Cup Champions in 2009, Shakhtar is not unfamiliar to top-level football. They have only lost one player in their starting 11 from 2009 and have since added former Arsenal midfielder Eduardo and Brasilian U-20 star Douglas.
2009 UEFA Cup Champs
Eduardo (nationalized Croatian) and Douglas are 2 of 7 Brasilians who inject "joga bonito" into an already attack-minded Ukrainian style of play. Luiz Adriano and Jadson will need to influence the match with their counter-attacks if Shakhtar hope to grab an all-important away goal at the Camp Nou.
Bolstering the defense for the Ukrainian side is former Barcelona center-back Dmytro Chygrynskiy. The failed 2009 signing returned home after one year in Spain as the first Ukrainian to play for the blaugrana. He likely share his knowledge of the Barcelona system to give his Brasilian teammates an edge.
Flanking Chygrynskiy will be two world-class fullbacks in Darijo Srna and Razvan Rat. The Croatian and Romanian, respectively, play similarly to Dani Alves and Adriano. Between them, they have made over 150 caps for their countries Srna, captain of his national side as well as Shakhtar, will have his hands full with Adriano and Andres Iniesta while Rat will be scurrying to mark Messi and Alves.
While (The) Ukraine has a relatively young nation and national team that played its first official match in 1992, Ukrainian players have been featuring prominently on the world stage for decades. The USSR was able to achieve success throughout the decades thanks to players from Ukraine. The former Soviet Republic's most capped player, and leading goal scorer is Oleg Blokhin, the 1975 Ballon d'Or winner. The USSR's second leading scorer all-time is also Ukrainian, Oleh Protasov.
I fully expect this afternoon's affair to deliver drama and excitement. Hopefully not too much drama in the eyes of a Barcelona supporter, but bring the excitement!
Messi is returning after sitting out this past weekend's difficult match at Villarreal. Pedro could return as well.
Shakhtar were smashed 5-1 at the Emirates earlier this season. While they were able to defeat the Gunners 2-1 at the Donbass Arena, I expect the Cule to sing their team to victory. Like they say, it doesn't get any better than rooting for Barça.
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