Shakhtar owe rude health to bitterest of tonic

With their aspirations of defending the Ukrainian title all but extinguished ten games into the season and UEFA Champions League elimination following soon after, FC Shakhtar Donetsk coach Mircea Lucescu described how his team turned things around to earn a UEFA Cup final meeting with Werder Bremen and the chance to end the season on a high.

Sluggish start
The outlook appeared rosy for Shakhtar in mid-July. With a championship-winning squad embellished by several new faces, from home and abroad, their ever-expanding trophy cabinet welcomed a new arrival as the Pitmen claimed the domestic Super Cup, edging out rivals FC Dynamo Kyiv on penalties. Yet a 2-0 opening-day league defeat by perennial strugglers FC Lviv proved a more accurate barometer of where Shakhtar were at. By the start of October – having won just one of their opening nine games – they were eleventh. Hopes of defending their title were as distant as leaders FC Dynamo Kyiv.

Mistake
"Our pre-season preparation was good as the new players were introduced to the squad," Lucescu told uefa.com. "My mistake was using the newcomers from the start, and we made mistakes. There was something not right about us: we were reigning champions but were not playing like it. We were unlucky, too, because we conceded some incredible goals while otherwise dominating. Yet because we were dominating, I never lost faith. I was always confident the team would come back, and start playing like we did last year. I drafted in a few of the old players, my players, who know our organisation inside-out and they started to recuperate points."

Pivotal moment
Yet the worst-tasting medicine is always better for you and so the turning point for the Pitmen's season came after a particularly bitter defeat. Leading a previously irresistible FC Barcelona in Donetsk with the end in sight, substitute Lionel Messi worked his magic, two last-gasp goals leaving the hosts crestfallen. "[With the Ukrainian title slipping away] I started to focus on European competition, initially in the Champions League," said Lucescu. "We could have gone further but we lost against Barcelona despite being 1-0 up after 88 minutes. Afterwards, though, we regrouped and decided we had to continue, we knew what we had to do."

Camp Nou win 
Shakhtar embarked on a run that ensured they would finish runners-up in the Premier League and that took them to the Ukrainian Cup final. Initially, though, their improved domestic form was not replicated on the international front as back-to-back defeats by Sporting Clube de Portugal left them out of the running for the UEFA Champions League knockout stages. A 5-0 win against FC Basel 1893 earned the consolation of a UEFA Cup berth, however, and they bowed out with a 3-2 victory at Camp Nou, one of only two home defeats all season for Barça.

Deserved final place
"That was the ideal platform to enter the UEFA Cup," said Lucescu. "The whole team started to regain confidence, started to put on good performances, spectacular even, and I think we deserve to be in this final after eliminating sides with the calibre of CSKA Moskva, Tottenham Hotspur, Marseille and Dynamo Kyiv. After these four I think we can beat anyone, even Werder Bremen." Few would have predicted as much in the autumn.