The fate of the 1/16 finals of the Europa League for the Pitmen will be decided next Thursday.

Donetsk Shakhtar played a productive draw with French Marseille in the first match of the 1/16 Europa League.

The game ended with a score of 2:2, the result of the match was decided by the last half hour of the meeting. The French club managed to break the score only in the 64th minute of the game – Marseille’s star striker Aubameyang successfully blocked a cross from the flank into an empty net.

However, the Pitmen’s fans didn’t have to grieve for long. Just 4 minutes later, Matvienko took advantage of the defender’s mistake and hit the far corner of the goal with a powerful shot, 1:1.

The ending of the meeting turned out to be epic. In the last minute of normal time, Ndiaye received the ball a few meters from the goal and made good use of it. However, the Donetsk club bounced back again – already in the 92nd minute of the match, Zubkov crossed into the opponent’s penalty area, where he was ready to shoot past Eguinalda. Which is exactly what he did, winning the aerial battle and scoring the ball with his head.

As a result, 2:2, the fate of the 1/16 finals of the Europa League for the Pitmen will be decided next Thursday in France.

“I think we played well. There were moments when we dominated. We created a lot of chances, but missed due to our own mistakes. We had to show character – we came back twice. We need to clean up the mistakes and work to be more concentrated in Marseille “, said Shakhtar captain Taras Stepanenko in a post-match interview.

Shakhtar head coach Marino Pusic has a similar opinion. He said the end result did not reflect the situation on the field.

“Sometimes football is like that. Sometimes you don’t get the result that you probably deserve. But it was a tough game for both teams, it was an interesting game for the spectators. And in any case we have a result. We knew in advance that such a confrontation would not be decided in the first game, that’s why we got a draw in the first part, so we’re confidently approaching the next stage. We showed how well we can play,” said the Pitmen’s helmsman.

Shakhtar – Marseille – 2:2

Goals: Matvienko, 68, Eguinaldo, 90+2 – Aubameyang, 64, Ndiae, 90

Warning: Hemp, 50, Zubkov, 79, Eguinaldo, 90+3 – Balerdi, 27

Shakhtar starting line-up: Reznik, Azarov, Matvienko, Bondar, Konoplya (Gocholeishvili, 78), Stepanenko (Nazarina, 72), Sudakov, Bondarenko (Traore, 90+1), Eguinaldo, Zubkov, Sikan (Kevin, 78).

Marseille starting lineup: Lopez, Merlin, Balerdi, Gigot, Kloss, Harit, Unai, Kondogbia, Mumbanya (Meite, 90+1), Henrique (Ndiaye, 72), Aubameyang (Correa, 90+1).

Let us remind you that only one Ukrainian club entered the European Cup in the second part of the 2023/24 season – Shakhtar, which took third place in its Champions League group and moved to the Europa League.

Thanks to the draw with Marseille, the club added 0.200 points to Ukraine’s ranking in the UEFA coefficients table, so that our country retained 18th place in the ranking. Ukraine now has 28,000 points over the past five seasons, increasing its lead over Serbia (19 ITU) to 0.225 points and maintaining a chance to get a little further ahead, since all Serbian clubs have already been eliminated from European competition.