Ilsinho sends Shakhtar to Istanbul

FC Shakhtar Donetsk made history by becoming the first team from Ukraine to reach the UEFA Cup final after Ilsinho's 89th-minute strike secured a 2-1 victory over arch-rivals FC Dynamo Kyiv.

Absorbing
Ilsinho gave Mircea Lucescu's men a 3-2 aggregate success following an absorbing second-leg tie in which Jadson hit an early opener for Shakhtar before Ismaël Bangoura's well-worked equaliser for Dynamo just after the restart. With a repeat of last week's 1-1 scoreline and extra time just around the corner, however, Ilsinho drove past two defenders and fired the team from Donetsk into the final in Istanbul on 20 May. The only sour note for Shakhtar was a booking for Tomáš Hübschman for handball which rules him out of that final.

Jadson prominent
Dynamo had the first sight of goal in the fourth minute when Bangoura found space on the edge of the Shakhtar box and dragged a left-foot shot wide of the far post. Yet Shakhtar, with the Brazilian Jadson prominent, were soon looking dangerous. Jadson spurned a first shooting opportunity after eleven minutes, driving the ball over after it fell to him from a Darijo Srna long throw-in, but within another six minutes he had broken the deadlock. When Betão failed to clear Srna's cross into the box Luiz Adriano got a touch to tee up the No8 and he placed his shot high into the top corner.

Vukojević offside
Buoyed by their goal, Shakhtar were now on top, probing the Dynamo back line with balls into the box. The Ukrainian league leaders' only notable threat in the first period came from the set-pieces of Olexandr Aliyev. After a foul by Mykola Ischenko on Artem Milevskiy on the edge of the box, he spurned one presentable free-kick opportunity. His next attempt from further out was more successful, Ognjen Vukojević turning the ball into the Shakhtar net but, having got in front of the last defender, he was rightly ruled offside.

Cool finish
Dynamo drew level two minutes into the second half with a superbly crafted goal. From the halfway line Betão played the ball forward to Milevskiy, he laid it off to Aliyev and the little No8 slipped it through to Bangoura. Breaking into the box, the Guinean lifted the ball coolly over Andriy Pyatov and into the bottom corner. Shakhtar responded well to the setback, however. Jadson lifted a high ball to the far post where Betão blocked Fernandinho's attempted volley. Shortly after the hour Jadson was involved again as he played the ball to Ilsinho then surged forward on to the return pass only to be foiled by the out-rushing Stanislav Bogush.

Making history
Save for a Roman Eremenko cross-shot that drifted wide, the traffic was heading mainly in the direction of the Dynamo goal. Bogush almost let in Ilsinho when he fumbled a ball in the box only for the covering Goran Sabljić to clear. As the clock ticked down, substitute Olexander Gladkiy poked an effort over the goalkeeper but wide of goal after running on to an Ilsinho pass. Instead it fell to Ilsinho himself to create history for the home side. Collecting a long pass out on the right, he carried the ball past Badr El Kaddouri, stepped inside Ayila Yussuf and finished low into the far corner.