Metalist medallists set for Europe

FC Metalist Kharkiv are preparing for a first European campaign in 19 years after a win on Saturday guaranteed them the bronze-medal slot in Ukraine.

Third place
Eleven points clear of FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk with three games to go, Metalist will start next season in the UEFA Cup second qualifying round. And should FC Shakhtar Donetsk lose all their remaining matches, Miron Markevich's side could even finish second in the Premier League. The coach joked: "Yes, we can get second, but why would we want to do that? What would we have to aspire to in the future?"

Exciting style
The club have already ensured this will be the greatest campaign in their 82-year history by securing third spot - their best ever ranking. The 55-year-old Markevich had already claimed bronze with his local team FC Karpaty Lviv, but this term he has won a whole legion of fans in Kharkhiv by imposing his trademark exciting, creative football on Metalist.

Careful additions
Goalkeeper and captain Olexander Goryainov, defenders Olexander Babich and Seweryn Gancarczyk, midfielders Valentin Slusar, Marko Devic and Olexander Rykun, all have shone for Metalist along with Under-21 international strikers Ruslan Fomin and Olexiy Antonov. "We tried to avoid bringing in players who didn't share our spirit, and this is the result," said Markevich. "After a 19-year absence, Kharkiv will see European football again." The club's only previous continental foray came the season after they beat FC Torpedo Moskva in the 1988 Soviet Cup final. Older supporters remember how Metalist beat FK Borac, then of Yugoslavia, 4-2 on aggregate in the first round of the 1988/89 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup before losing to Dutch outfit Roda JC, with just one goal scored over the 180 minutes.

Wilderness years
Since then Metalist have been through the mangle. Their best campaigns since independence saw them reach the Ukrainian Cup final in 1992 and finish fifth in the league in 1992/93. Subsequently relegated, they almost went into a tailspin. They returned to the top flight under Mykhailo Fomenko in 1998 yet were demoted again in 2003 only to bounce back in 2004 under Gennadiy Litovchenko. The arrival of president Olexander Yaroslavskiy has signalled renewed stability, but it was Markevich who made Metalist dreams come true. "At my first press conference in Kharkiv, I was asked if we could qualify for the UEFA Cup," he recalled. "I answered: 'Why not?'" That will be the question on everyone's lips as Metalist mount their second assault on Europe this autumn.