Shakhtar Donetsk beat Bremen in extra-time to lift Uefa Cup
Shakhtar beat Bremen in Istanbul to win their first European trophy
Also In The News
|
Portsmouth goalkeeper David James will miss the end of the Premier League season and England's summer internationals to undergo shoulder surgery. |  |
Wednesday, 20, May 2009 10:44
Shakhtar Donetsk have beaten Werder Bremen 2-1 after extra-time to win the Uefa Cup for the first time in their history.
Rodrigues Jadson scored the winning goal six minutes into extra-time after a strike from Werder's Ronaldo Naldo had earlier cancelled out Luiz Adriano's opening goal for the Ukrainians.
Shakhtar were competing in their first ever European final and they started the brighter side, with Jadson setting up Adriano but he slid the ball wide of the goal from the edge of the box.
Bremen responded well and moments later a chance fell to Frank Baumann inside the Shakhtar penalty area but he also missed the target with his instinctive volley.
Donetsk dominated the play for most of the opening quarter of the game but lacked quality in the final third of the pitch to take advantage of their good build up play.
After 25 minutes they finally managed to find the killer finish their pressure had deserved. The Ukrainian side counter-attacked with speed to release Adriano who opened the scoring with a neat chip over the on-rushing Tim Wiese in the Bremen goal.
Immediately after the goal Shakhtar created two great chances to double their lead, Adriano and Willian combined on each occasion but neither player troubled Wiese with their shots.
They were left to rue those missed opportunities with ten minutes to go before the break when Bremen levelled things at 1-1.
Naldo hit a speculative free-kick from 30 yards out that should have been easily claimed by Shakhtar goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov but he only succeeded in palming it in to his own goal.
Just before the break Mariusz Lewandowski nearly put the Ukrainians back on top with his own long-range shot but Wiese dived full length to maintain parity at half-time.
The second half of the match failed to live up to the breathless first 45 minutes and chances were at a premium.
Although Shakhtar were playing the better football they could not break down a stoic Bremen defence that was able to make a number of crucial blocks to keep the scores level.
The best chance of the second period fell to Werder's Claudio Pizarro but his header was clawed off the line by Pyatov.
Shakhtar managed to forge ahead at the start of extra-time thanks to another goalkeeping error.
Darijo Srna crossed for Jadson and although he did not make powerful contact with his shot it was still enough to squirm under Wiese, who should have done much better.
Werder thought they had saved themselves late on but Sebatian Proedl's header was ruled out for a foul by Pizarro.