Shakhtar Donetsk v Bayern Munich: Champions League - as it happened!
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Version 0 of 1. 9.36pm GMT21:36 Full-time: Shakhtar Donetsk 0-0 Bayern Munich That’s your lot. Not much to say. That was poor, especially from Bayern though Shakhtar will be happy enough. Thanks for all your emails and tweets. Bye! 9.34pm GMT21:34 90 + 2 mins Ribéry kicks back after taking a kicking for the game. Wellington Nem was his target. There are a few handbags. Not enough to take to Twitter and get all in a rage about though. 9.32pm GMT21:32 90 mins There will be three more minutes of this sub-par football. 9.30pm GMT21:30 88 mins Gladkiy comes on for Adriano. 9.29pm GMT21:29 86 mins Sorry folks but this one has petered out. 9.27pm GMT21:27 84 mins Wellington Nem comes on for Taison. Schweinsteiger welcomes him to the arena by lumping him out of it. Another yellow card it is. 9.26pm GMT21:26 82 mins Rakitskiy tries to play the ball out of the defence but instead plays it to the chest of Robben. The Dutchman marauds down the right wing before cutting inside and aiming one goal-wards. Rakitskiy recovers and stops the shot, with what looked like his hand. The referee gives him nothing. 9.23pm GMT21:23 80 mins Ribéry wins a free-kick wide on the left when Fred stamps on his foot. They switch sides and continue to pass but Shakhtar pressure. The ball pops out and Taison and Boateng vie for possession. However, Boateng’s challenge is badly mis-timed and it is a yellow card for the German defender. 9.20pm GMT21:20 78 mins Fred holds onto Ribéry just a bit too long. The referee don’t like what he sees so he flashes a yellow. Meanwhile, Costa does one and is replaced by Marlos. Updated at 9.20pm GMT 9.18pm GMT21:18 76 mins Bayern are down to 10 men but Shakhtar are still allowing the Germans to dominate the game here. There is precious little to suggest that they are going to take advantage of their advantage. Indeed, the keep on giving the ball back to them, as if it were some sort of grenade they need to be rid of as soon as possible. 9.16pm GMT21:16 74 mins On comes Lewandowski. Off goes Götze. Didn’t Lewandowski score against Shakhtar when playing for Dortmund a few years ago? 9.14pm GMT21:14 72 mins Shakhtar are looking a bit tired and a bit clumsy but will they ever get a better chance to take Bayern? Time for Lucescu to change something. Updated at 9.14pm GMT 9.12pm GMT21:12 70 mins Just before that corner was taken, Badstuber came on for Müller. That will go down as one of his more ineffective performances in a Bayern shirt. 9.11pm GMT21:11 68 mins Bayern get a throw deep in enemy territory. They pass and pass and try to tire Shakhtar. Ribéry spots an opening and looks to find the run of Götze into the box. He doesn’t but Pyatov fumbles the ball out for a corner. That comes to nothing. 9.08pm GMT21:08 RED CARD FOR ALONSO! 66 mins And now Alonso’s luck has ran out. He got on the wrong side of Teixeira and dragged him to the ground. Had he not done so, Teixeira could have powered through towards goal. Pep shakes his head like he can’t believe it but the Spaniard should have gone a few minutes ago anyway. Xabi Alonso is the first player to pick up a red card in his 100th CL match. He is the 25th player with least 100 CL matches. #UCL Updated at 9.24pm GMT 9.06pm GMT21:06 64 mins Speaking of luck. Xabi Alonso step right up. A few moments ago, he went right through Luiz Adriano and somehow managed not to pick up his second yellow of the game for what was an industrial challenge. 9.04pm GMT21:04 62 mins There has been another goal in Paris and this time it has gone to ... 9.02pm GMT21:02 60 mins “Asterix = The Broons. Tintin = Oor Wullie,” so says Simon McMahon. 9.01pm GMT21:01 58 mins Douglas Costa is very, very, very lucky to still be on the pitch. He and Ribéry were challenging for the ball when he decided that the best thing to do would be to stick his elbow in the Frenchman’s face. Costa got a yellow for his troubles but it should have been a red. Updated at 9.01pm GMT 8.59pm GMT20:59 56 mins ... Once again, Alonso takes and while he manages to evade the hands of Pyatov he also manages to avoid everyone else and the ball goes out for a goalkick. Lewandowski is warming up on the sidelines. Müller or Götze will go. 8.58pm GMT20:58 54 mins Srna takes down Ribéry wide on the right. Then Costa sticks the boot in when he is down. Free-kick tio Bayern ... 8.54pm GMT20:54 52 mins Jona Steenbrink has been in touch re Tintin and Asterix . “It’s totally apples and oranges. Asterix books are smarter and funnier, whereas Tintin is more about adventure and plot. Also, the rocket from Destination Moon is one of the coolest ever. Both the test rocket and the real rocket, for the pedants out there.” 8.52pm GMT20:52 50 mins Schweinsteiger gets the ball wide on the left. A sumptuous pul-back sees him create space. He sends the ball rolling across the turf into the path of Alonso. He is taken down, as he goes to strike, and there are half-hearted appeals for a penalty. That is not given – and rightly not given – but a corner that comes to nothing is. 8.50pm GMT20:50 48 mins Pass, pass, pass go Bayern. Down the right, then down the left. Down the right again, then down the left again. And back to Neuer. Eventually Alaba goes long but a perfectly cushioned header from Taison sees the ball back in the hands of Pyatov. 8.48pm GMT20:48 46 mins No half-time changes to tell you about. 8.47pm GMT20:47 45 mins We are back. And we are back with hope for Bayern fans. 6 - Shakhtar Donezk haven't won any of his last 6 games in #UCL after a nil-nil at half time (D4 L2). Serie.#FCSDFCB 8.31pm GMT20:31 Half-time: Shakhtar Donetsk 0-0 Bayern Munich That’s your lot for now. Back in a few minutes. 8.30pm GMT20:30 45 mins Just one more minute of added time, folks. 8.29pm GMT20:29 43 mins Robben breaks and plays a pass to Müller, who has his back to goal. On the edge of the box, he lays it off to complete the second part of a one-two with the Dutchman. However, Ribéry sneaks in ahead of Robben and ruins the move with a poor effort that fails to find the target. Updated at 8.36pm GMT 8.27pm GMT20:27 42 mins “Special mention to the inventive translations of Asterix into English, by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge, which made it even better and funnier than the original,” says Jake Lynch. “Centurion Raucus Hallelujachorus, legionaries Sendervictorious and Appianglorious... all by them. Reading Asterix books to my son (now aged 10) has reminded me of how multi-layered they are. No contest with Tintin.” Poor Tintin. No love for him at all. 8.25pm GMT20:25 40 mins There may be no goals over here but there has been one here. And it has gone to Chelsea. 8.24pm GMT20:24 38 mins Costa shoulders Ribéry to the ground but Srna gets a yellow for getting too mouthy about it. (Heaven knows what he was arguing about as it very clearly a free-kick.) It is wide on the left near the corner of the box. Ribéry takes. Pyatov takes. Updated at 8.37pm GMT 8.21pm GMT20:21 36 mins Shakhtar do a decent impression of Bayern, passing the ball from side to side and retaining possession until Rakitskiy lumps it long, over everyone and into the welcoming arms of Neuer. Pah! 8.19pm GMT20:19 34 mins Shevchuk gets another boot to the head. This time from Müller. It was accidental but there is plenty of blood coming out. Ouch. 8.18pm GMT20:18 32 mins Bayern put some heavy pressure on the Shakhtar defence. That results in the ball finding its way into the air. Müller wins the header and finds Ribéry wide-ish on the left. Müller runs to the penalty spot and Ribéry tries to find him. That he does but the Frenchman’s pass is a touch too fast and Müller struggles to connect properly, eventually knocking it over the bar. Updated at 8.49pm GMT 8.16pm GMT20:16 31 mins “Dearest Ian,” cheers Angus Chisholm. “Comparing Tintin and Asterix is a bit like comparing apples and oranges. But you answer your question, no, Tintin was not better than Asterix (that is, Asterix comics published prior to Goscinny’s unfortunate death). I started reading Tintin as a wee tacker and loved it, but moved on to Asterix which had a richness of humorous reference points, historical awareness and language (even in translation) that Tintin just didn’t really match. It’s a bit like comparing classical The Simpsons to Speed Racer or Captain Planet. Well, that’s probably a bit unfair, but still.” 8.15pm GMT20:15 29 mins After some patience and piercing buildup play, Bayern win a corner on the left. Alonso takes once more and once more finds the hands of Pyatov. The keeper launches it long to try counter but some good tracking back from Ribéry, of all people, stops that in its tracks. 8.12pm GMT20:12 26 mins Alonso got a yellow card for his effort on Teixeira, by the way. Updated at 8.12pm GMT 8.11pm GMT20:11 25 mins More handbags between the two sides. This time after Alonso stuck a last-minute – and very late – reducer on Teixeira. The subsequent free-kick is a along way out but Rakitskiy decides to have a lash. It bounces and skips just in front of Neuer who needs two goes to grab hold of it. Updated at 9.14pm GMT 8.08pm GMT20:08 23 mins Rafinha goes in the yellow book after after failing to retreat after a free-kick was awarded. Silly boy. Updated at 8.09pm GMT 8.07pm GMT20:07 22 mins Shevchuk gets a high boot from Robben. Shakhtar take the free-kick – which should be launched in to the box – short. Fred – I think – looks to set Shevchuk free down the left but the defender was still recovering from the floggin’ on his noggin’ and fails to read the script. 8.05pm GMT20:05 20 mins It is clear that Shakhtar have been watching the video of the Wolfsburg game. Every time Bayern attack and they regain possession, they look to start a quick attack on the counter and try catch them cold. 8.03pm GMT20:03 18 mins Alaba is taken out, wide on the left by Costa. It is what is known in the trade as a pole-axe. He should get a yellow but he does not. There are some post-tackle handbags. Zzzzzz. Alonso takes the free-kick and lands it right in the hands of Pyatov. 8.01pm GMT20:01 16 mins Götze concedes a free-kick for a foul on Taison. Pep does not like that and he lets the referee know in no uncertain terms. Pep, it should be said, is wearing a magnificently stylish coat tonight. That man got style. 7.59pm GMT19:59 14 mins Just saw a replay of that Müller-Robben combo. It could have been classed as a shot by the German. 7.58pm GMT19:58 12 mins And that could have been one up to the Germans. deep in the Ukraine half, Robben muscles Shevchuk off the ball – the defender wants a free-kick but a free-kick it ain’t – and tip-toes towards the box. Müller makes an intelligent cross-box run and Robben finds him out. Müller tried to return the favour but Robben, for some reason, has discontinued his run. Had he kept on going, that would have been a goal. Shakhtar eventually hacked it clear. Updated at 7.58pm GMT 7.55pm GMT19:55 10 mins Bayern have spent the last few minutes just stroking the ball, like an villain with his cat in a Bond movie. Shakhtar are struggling to deal with that. 7.54pm GMT19:54 8 mins There are chants of “Ukrayina, Ukrayina” from the Shakhtar fans. 7.53pm GMT19:53 7 mins Bayern build and build outside the Shakhtar box. Srna tries to clear it via an overhead kick but the pressure comes right back at them. Eventually, Schweinsteiger is clipped by Fred and Bayern have a free wide on the left. Alonso sends it along the floor and into the path of Robben but under little enough pressure he scuffs his effort. He then can’t get the ball from out under his feet when his second chance comes around. Poor show for a player of his quality. Updated at 8.39pm GMT 7.50pm GMT19:50 5 mins Was Tintin better than Asterix? Back in the game, Shakhtar have a free-kick wide on the right. It is sent in towards the front post but the Bayern defence are able to deal with it comfortably enough. 7.48pm GMT19:48 3 mins Something has happened. Robben got the ball and – shock of shocks – cut inside just outside the Shakhtar box. He scooped the ball over the defence and found Schweinsteiger in loads of room. His volleyed shot from the edge of the area goes wide of the post. He should have done better. Updated at 7.48pm GMT 7.47pm GMT19:47 2 mins It looks colder than Tintin skinny dipping in the Arctic. (Did Tintin ever go skinny dipping in the Arctic? Or was that something I just made up?) Nothing to tell you about just yet except for a very weak shot from Rafinha that Pyatov saved with ease. 7.45pm GMT19:45 1 min Off we go then. The home side are in their usual black and orange striped number while Bayern are in their changed number of all white. Shakhtar take the game’s first centre and they take off playing right to left. 7.43pm GMT19:43 Right so. The fans have the coats and funny hats on; the players have their boots and kits on; the assistant referees have their flags in hands. Hands are shaken, snots are rocketed and hamstrings are given a final stretch as the the Champions League anthem is belted out over the speakers. It is almost time to rock. Woop! 7.36pm GMT19:36 Or if you are more into the interview thing and Arjen Robben, then you could have a peruse of this interview with Arjen Robben. It’s by Donald McRae so you know it’s good. Arjen Robben suddenly drops his defensive, cross-armed pose. He has just begun to consider the imposing list of managers for whom he has played – Guus Hiddink, José Mourinho, Louis van Gaal, Jupp Heynckes and Pep Guardiola – when the change comes. “Every manager has a certain influence,” Robben says, “and it depends whether you’re 18, 25 or 30. You need different things. But, in general, one thing matters most.” At this point, thinking hard, Robben uncrosses his arms, nods intently and leans forward as he really begins to talk. “You need to be very critical of yourself. There are a few very good managers who can make players better individually. Most managers think about the team process – and so you have to improve things on your own. You have to be very strong mentally. But it’s also very important to be critical of yourself. This is something I miss a little with the younger generation. “These days you have guys who are 19 or 20 and they’ve played their first game and they feel they’ve made it. It’s not true. There’s always so much to improve, no matter your age. That’s why I’m really enjoying working with Pep. I learn from him every day and that’s a special feeling. People always say young players can learn a lot and even at 26, 27 you can still make big steps. Then, it’s expected you stay at that level or go down.” Robben, who turned 31 last month, rubs his bald head ruefully in a small room on a sunlit yet freezing February afternoon in Munich. A friendly but guarded atmosphere with one of the world’s greatest and most controversial footballershas become far more interesting. It is now also easier to understand why Robben has reached new heights as a player in recent years. “When I started working with Pep 18 months ago I noticed how he goes much deeper into football,” Robben says. “His intelligence is obvious. Tactically he’s one of the best in the world and under him I have made more steps in my development. I’ve come quite a long way these 18 months.” Continued here. 7.33pm GMT19:33 While you are waiting for this game to get going, you should have a read of this piece on how Shakhtar Donetsk’s ‘refugees’ provide escapism in war-torn Ukraine. It’s very good. The talk in Shakhtar Donetsk’s dressing room last week was not cars or girls or even football, but rather the ceasefire agreed between government forces and pro-Russian rebels in the east of the country. As soon as the players gathered for lunch on Thursday, they began discussing the truce and the possibility that peace could come to their club’s hometown, the veteran goalkeeper Andrei Pyatov told the Guardian. The team have been training in the capital Kiev for their Champions League match against Bayern Munich on Tuesday since Donetsk is under rebel control. “If people stop dying everyday, we’ll be able to focus on the game,” Pyatov said. “Sometimes you go out to play after hearing on the news that some bus came under fire and people died, and you think about that. It influences you, even if you hide it. Internally you’re not as concentrated. You try to be professional but those thoughts are there all the same.” The fighting has killed at least 5,400 people over the past 10 months, and shelling continued this week around the besieged town of Debaltseve, calling into question the ceasefire that came into effect on Sunday. The conflict began when protesters seized the regional administration building in Donetsk, denouncing the new pro-Western regime in Kiev as a “fascist junta” and calling on Vladimir Putin to come to their aid. Russia has flooded the region with arms, volunteers and, according to overwhelming evidence, active-duty soldiers to bolster the rebels in their fight against Kiev’s “anti-terrorist operation”. Continued here. 7.11pm GMT19:11 (Proper) team news Shakhtar Donetsk: Pyatov, Kucher, Shevchuk, Srna, Rakitskiy, Fred, Fernando, Costa, Teixeira, Adriano, Taison. Subs: Kanibolotskiy, Kryvtsov, Azevedo, Marlos, Ilsinho, Wellington Nem, Gladkiy. Bayern Munich: Neuer, Rafinha, Boateng, Bernat, Alaba, Alonso, Ribéry, Götze, Schweinsteiger, Robben, Müller. Subs: Starke, Reina, Dante, Badstuber, Rode, Weiser, Lewandowski. Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (Spain) Updated at 7.25pm GMT 6.45pm GMT18:45 Good evening and welcome It’s the mid 80s. Maybe 86, maybe 87, somewhere around that anyway. Will Smith was in Los Angels, looking to get his nascent career as a rapper off the ground and into the air. Standing in front of a nightclub, chillin’ out, maxin’ relaxin’ all cool, he was confronted by a four-deep group of fellow rappers from Chicago called the Fresh Park Four. They wanted to battle, verbally, of course. Now Smith ain’t that type but he decided to get down with it anyway. “Next thing I know,” said one of Smith’s entourage, “I look up and there’s like 50 of the biggest Samoans I’ve ever seen.” The Sons of Samoa didn’t like the blue-coloured clothes of the Fresh Pack Four. The Samoans broke a 40oz beer bottle over the head of one, threw another threw a shop window and then chased the rest away. Smith raced back into the nightclub and found the nearest broom closet and he would not come out until being assured that Samoans had moved on. Smith was scared. Very scared. Understandably scared. But maybe not as scared as Shakhtar Donetsk are going to be when taking to the pitch to play Bayern Munich this evening. If you had better things to do this past weekend, you might not have noticed that the German side spent their Saturday afternoon ripping Hamburg to minuscule pieces only available to the eye via Nasa’s most powerful telescope. 8-0 it ended. That’s right. Eight. Nil. Against a side that before this game had only conceded 11 away from home all season (only Bayern themselves and Borussia Monchengladbach could boast a better away defence than that at the time). Thomas Müller was brilliant but Arjen Robben was even better. He teased and tormented Ronny Marcos as he bagged his 13th and 14th goals of the season, goals that allow him to be joint top of the Bundesliga scoring charts. Heck, even Bastian Schweinsteiger polished Robben’s (right) boot after he scored the second and you know, Schweinsteiger ain’t polishing just any old boot. It was Bayern’s biggest victory in the league for 30 years and it was Hamburg’s heaviest-ever Bundesliga defeat. And get this. At 6-0 with 31 minutes to go, Pep wasn’t happy. He took off a centre-back in Medhi Benatia and brought on an attacker in Frank Ribéry. Afterwards, the Bayern players, and their manager, all said that they felt their buildup play and passing was a lot swifter than it had been, that their movement was a lot more fluid than it had been and that they felt their style had clicked back into place after the disruption of the winter break. But Robben had this to say: “We need to keep going and we can’t start thinking that everything will happen automatically for us. We have to keep working hard as there’s still more we can do. On Tuesday we start at 0-0 again.” That’s right. Moments after a magnificent win – maybe the biggest many had ever experienced – and Robben was telling his team-mates to forget all about it and concentrate on complacency not creeping in for tonight’s affair. So their scoring is on point; their style is on point; and their mental game is on point. You can kinda see why Shakhtar might be shaking in their brightly-lit boots, right about now, right? Right. And yet. There is hope. Bayern may have only lost once and only drawn four games and only let in nine goals (all in the league) this season but Wolfsburg put four past them only last month in what was a magnificent performance. How? Well they did so by soaking up the pressure and striking with speed on the counterattack. They were also very aggressive. They got up in the grille and didn’t back down. Here is what the wonderful Kevin De Bruyne (the best player in the Bundesliga this season?) had to say when asked how his side did so well: “Bayern usually take a lot of risks and that normally works pretty well against most of the teams in the Bundesliga. For our fourth goal especially they left us a lot of room; their backline was even in our half so we couldn’t be offside. You have to take risks against Bayern.” So there you have it. Take risks. Play with speed. Put pressure on their backline. And beat Bayern. And with the quality available to Mircea Lucescu, that should be easy, right? Well it could be for a side that have a few games under their boots, which Shakhtar do not. Bayern may be back in the swing of things but the Ukraine side have not swung a leg at a (competitive) ball since a 1-1 draw with Porto over two months ago. There have been friendlies at training camps in Brazil, Croatia and Spain during the winter break but they won’t resume their Ukrainian Premier League defence against Vorskla Poltava until much later in this month. That will make them rustier than that time you left your favourite piece of iron out in the rain. (That resumption and tonight’s match, for obvious reasons, will take place in Kiev, hundreds of miles away from the Donbass Arena in Donetsk.) One more thing before this preamble wraps up. Should Shakhtar win, they would be the only side in the entire universe with a 100% record over the Germans for these sides have never met before. But that’s not going to happen, is it? Or is it? “Sometimes logic doesn’t apply in football,” hoped Lucescu ahead of this match. “We have 13 Brazilians in the squad who are dreaming of exacting revenge against Bayern’s six world champions.” So will logic succumb to the rage of revenge? Stayed tuned to find out. Team news and 90 minutes of white-hot action is a’coming. Real soon. Kick-off: 7.45pm (GMT) |