Shakhtar keep hold of Ukrainian Cup

FC Shakhtar Donetsk have retained the Ukrainian Cup after defeating FC Metalurh Donetsk 2-1 at the Olympic Stadium.

The Pitmen took the lead through Alex Teixeira on 23 minutes and although Nicolay Morozuk's free-kick drew things level after the break, Olexandr Kucher made the decisive contribution in extra time. The victory was a fourth in the competition for coach Mircea Lucescu, ensuring he surpassed the previous record he shared with Valeriy Lobanovskiy and Viktor Prokopenko.

Shakhtar started purposefully and gained the advantage when Teixeira broke into the box, beat defender Vyacheslav Checher and lobbed his finish over Oleksandr Bandura with the aid of a slight deflection. A second appeared likely to follow until the 69th minute, when Morozuk's set-piece restored parity.

The league leaders responded strongly again but needed two unlikely heroes to settle matters in the 105th minute. Yaroslav Rakitskiy's ferocious effort was kept out, but his central defensive partner Kucher was on hand to slot in the rebound. Metalurh could not conjure another equaliser and Shakhtar instead claimed their eighth Ukrainian Cup. A repeat of last year's domestic double will be confirmed if they overcome bottom side PFC Olexandriya in their final league game on Thursday.

Lucescu said: "I guess it was a spectacular match, a real football show for fans. We dominated before the break and could have scored many times. If we had scored the second goal from one of our numerous opportunities, it would have been much easier for us. But we missed lots of chances and as a result the players lost their confidence.

"In the end, all the guys were really exhausted but still we were more organised and purposeful in attacking; that's why our win is fair. I must confess that I didn't expect such resistance from Metalurh. They deserve plaudits for the way they prepared for this game."