Shakhtar – current form
It’s safe to say that football hasn’t been the most important thing in Ukraine for the past eight months or so.. For some it will be a welcome distraction, for others an inappropriate inconvenience.
Shakhtar, of course, have been used to playing away from home even longer than everyone else; they or they hasn’t played in Donetsk since 2014 due to the Russian invasion of the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine. Since then their league matches have taken place in Lviv, Kharkiv and now Kyiv, but Champions League matches, like the one against Celtic, are played in Warsaw, Poland.
For what it’s worth, they have been in fairly good shape since football resumed in Ukraine in August. They opened the season with a goalless draw against Metalist 1925 Khrakiv but have since recorded four consecutive victoriesthe most impressive of which came on Saturday, a 6-1 away win against… Metalist Kharkiv (not the same club as the other. It’s confusing). Leading the UPL (Ukrainian Premier League, of course), with 13 points in five games.