Late Shakh attack sees temporary Chelsea residents fly the Ukrainian flag with pride as Athens are defeated
Champions League MD2
Shakhtar Donetsk (1) 3 Pedrinho pen 34, Brignoli og 80, Menodoza 86
AEK Athens (0) 1 Majer 28
Welcome to your new temporary home Shakhtar.
The Ukrainians recovered excellently from going a goal down to run out worthy winners on an emotional night at Stamford Bridge which saw the stadium trade its normal blue bunting for the orange and black of Shakhtar Dontetsk and the blue and yellow flags of their homeland.
It's hard to imagine what it must have been like for nomadic Shakhtar in the past decade.
It was 14 years ago that their very modern Donbas Arena stadium was in use for the 2012 Euros - Wayne Rooney scoring a winner for England when they played Ukraine in one of the matches at the venue.
Two years later and the Russian incursions began in the area, forcing the current Ukrainian champions to move first to Kiev and Kharkiv and then Lviv, their current home for domestic football.
After the full scale invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin in February 2022, it was a case of having to move to safer locations in Poland, Germany and Slovenia to fulfil European fixtures.
Now, they have struck a deal to base themselves at the Bridge for this season's Champions League home games and the hope must be that local fans - who won't be seeing Chelsea in European action this season - will adopt them as their second team. It is also thought there are some 32,000 Ukrainian-born residents in the capital.
Shakhtar are not complete strangers to these parts. They were in London last season to face Crystal Palace in the Euro Conference League. But they need these games to feel like home from home.
That maybe did not feel quite the case in his first 'home' game at the Bridge, with AEK fans packing the Shed End's two tiers and making all the noise at kick-off. In a two-thirds full stadium, the upper tier of the Matthew Harding was vacant.
And those AEK fans were almost immediately rewarded as skipper Harold Moukoudi nodded a corner against the base of a post for the Greeks. But the Donetsk fans soon found their voice too and got some early encouragement when winger Alisson Santana nutmegged a defender before bending in a curling shot that needed saving.
The young Brazilian is one of many from that country to have turned out for the Ukrainians down the years.
Just as it seemed as if Donetsk were starting to feel on top, they were hit on the break and missed several chances to break up the raid before Stavros Pilios squared for Lovro Majer to put away.
But they were quickly back on level terms when another of their South Americans, Pedrinho, buried a spot kick awarded after a foul by Filipe Relvas on Alisson. Chris Kavanagh, the English ref, did not award the penalty until alerted to the foul by VAR.
The promise of the first half gave way to more humdrum fare after the interval with seemingly neither side making a cast-iron case to win it, though Shakhtar were grateful that keeper Dmytro Riznyk was able to reach up and palm away a wicked free-kick from Razvan Marin that like it might creep in under the crossbar.
But with Volodymir Zelensky in town meeting earlier today to meet Andy Burnham, the occasion almost demanded a win for the team starting up its residency and duly got it with two late goals.
First Vinicius Tobias fired in a cross which keeper Alberto Brignoli could only slice into his own net, then sub Gleiker Mendoza cut in from the left before curling in a beauty into the top corner.
For Turkish boss Arda Turan and the happy entourage - not to mention the fans - this was a moment to savour that they won't forget in a hurry.
Shakhtar are in a good place now. Their first game in the competition resulted in a very creditable 1-1 draw in Eindhoven against PSV. After this first London clash against Athens, they have three more fixtures at the Bridge - against Sporting Lisbon (November 3), Fenerbahce (November 25), and Real Madrid (January 27).
The 2009 Uefa Cup winners - they beat Werder Bremen 2-1 in extra time in Istanbul - play Inter Milan away later this month and travel to Slovan Bratislava in December and Leipzig in January.
Athens beat Austrian side LASK 1-0 on day one - their first victory in the Champions League proper for 20 years, so despite their famous name, their record is modest.And tonight, they were modest enough again to give Donetsk the win they craved.
They deservedly milked the acclaim from their fans at full time.
Shakhtar: (4-1-4-1): Riznyk - Vinicius Tobias, Bondar, Matviyenko, Pedro Henrique - Ocheretko - Alisson Santana (Lucas Ferreira 87), Pedrinho (Isaque 63), Marlon Gomes (Nazaryna 81), Newertton (Mendoza 63) - Kaua Elias (Meirelles 87)
AEK: (4-4-2) Brignoli - Rota, Moukoudi, Filipe Relvas, Pilios - Majer (Joao Mario 71), Marin (Zubkov 83), Vitalis (Kairinen 78), Koita - Jovic (Varga 79), Zine (Gacinovic 71)
Attendance: 29,144
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