“It is midday on Saturday in Ukraine and 12 vehicles transporting more than 100 Shakhtar Donetsk personnel are setting off for a home game. What makes this unusual? The home fixture is not for another four days. And it is taking place more than 1,000 miles from Shakhtar’s Lviv training base, at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium in London. Then again, Shakhtar have not been operating in a usual situation for some time. The Ukrainian club have not played at their actual home ground, the Donbass Arena, since 2014, after Russia invaded the region of the same name. Domestic home games have been consistently played at Arena Lviv, 750 miles west of Donetsk, since 2023 (Shakhtar had spells playing in Kyiv and Kharkiv before then). Home matches in UEFA competitions have been held in Germany, Poland and Slovenia over the past four years. This decision was taken following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. …”
NYT/ATH (Video)

How Ukrainians are uniting behind Shakhtar in London
“Artem Genne’s favourite footballing memory is standing on the Donbas Arena pitch, waving the Champions League flag, before Shakhtar Donetsk faced Chelsea. That was in 2012. Two years later, the Russian-backed capture of Donetsk led many Ukrainians to leave the city, including ardent Shakhtar supporter Genne. A large number fled to other areas of Ukraine and beyond, with the region’s football club forced to find a new home. Fourteen years later, they are still searching. It has led Shakhtar to Kyiv, Lviv and Kharkiv in Ukraine, and Poland, Slovenia and Germany for European games. …”
BBC

YouTube: Champions League Highlights – Matchday 2