Shakhtar Donetsk’s European odyssey heads to Palace after marathon campaign

“If you bring even [Pep] Guardiola to Shakhtar now, or [José] Mourinho, or Jürgen Klopp, I don’t know how he will manage this situation,” says the sporting director, Dario Srna, who played in Shakhtar’s 2009 Europa League triumph. “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.”

It hasn’t stopped Shakhtar from racking up 59 goals in 25 league matches under Turan as they close in on the title after finishing third last season. Shakhtar reached the last four of the Europa League in 2016 and 2020 before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 changed everything. Most of the club’s foreign players departed after special Fifa regulations allowed them to leave for free. Shakhtar failed with a claim for up to €50m in compensation and were forced to start from scratch.

Shakhtar Donetsk fans keep the flag flying in Alkmaar. Photograph: EYE4images/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

“We lost 14 players and coaching staff,” Srna says. “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 14 Brazilians on the books, including the exciting teenage playmaker Isaque Silva who arrived from Fluminense in August and is a key part of Turan’s side. Shakhtar previously nurtured players such as Fernandinho and Willian, and the sale of Kevin to Fulham for a club record £35m last summer meant the policy paid off once more.

“We believe in our model,” says Palkin. “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.”

Several players from Shakhtar’s academy left Ukraine after the full-scale invasion. But Shakhtar have also had success developing local talent to sell on, with the central midfielders Viktor Tsukanov and Denys Smetana tipped to follow in the footsteps of Georgiy Sudakov and Mykhailo Mudryk. First Srna is hoping they can help Shakhtar get to the final of a competition he wasn’t sure about at first.

Shakhtar Donetsk players line up before the game in Alkmaar. Photograph: EYE4images/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

“When we start to play in the Conference League, I said: ‘I don’t like the Conference League,’” he says 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 says Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be asked to attend the final in Leipzig should Shakhtar get past Palace in a tiePalkin regards as another opportunity to remind the world what is happening in his country.

“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 says. “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.”