Shakhtar and Bremen set up Turkish showdown
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Article summary
FC Shakhtar Donetsk can dream of becoming the Ukrainian team to lift the UEFA Cup after reaching the 20 May final, but Werder Bremen and coach Thomas Schaaf will have other ideas despite being without talisman Diego.
Article top media content
Article body
FK Shakhtar Donetsk and Werder Bremen will contest this season's UEFA Cup final in Istanbul on 20 May, the last before the competition makes way for the UEFA Europa League, after both won through in dramatic fashion on Thursday night.
Ukrainian first
Mircea Lucescu's Shakhtar will become the first Ukrainian side to grace a UEFA Cup final after defeating their great domestic rivals FC Dynamo Kyiv 2-1 in the second leg of their semi-final in Donetsk. Brazilians Jadson and Ilsinho were on target for Shakhtar, the latter netting the winning goal in the 89th minute with the teams level at 2-2 on aggregate and extra time looming.
Fighting spirit
Shakhtar, whose fans will doubtless turn part of the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium a bright shade of orange, will now look to become the first team from Ukraine to lift a European trophy since Dynamo captured the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1986 – although the fighting spirit shown by Bremen in beating north German rivals Hamburger SV suggests it will not be easy. Trailing 1-0 from the first leg, the size of Bremen's task doubled when they conceded just 13 minutes into the return tie in Hamburg yet they battled back to win 3-2 on the night through goals from Diego, Claudio Pizarro and Frank Baumann, and advanced to the final on away goals.
Schaaf eyes double
Beaten semi-finalists three times in the UEFA Cup, Bremen are now just one game away from landing the trophy – and securing their first European silverware since the 1992 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup triumph. Victory would mean a rare double for coach Thomas Schaaf, a player in that 1992 team, and would also spell Germany's sixth success in the competition – the first since FC Schalke 04 defeated FC Internazionale Milano in 1997. But they will have to do it without both Brazilian playmaker Diego, their six-goal leading scorer in the UEFA Cup, and Portuguese forward Hugo Almeida who will miss out through suspension after picking up their third yellow cards of the competition against Hamburg. The same applies to Shakhtar midfielder Tomáš Hübschman.
