May 2006. Shakhtar win second consecutive title
2008. FC Shakhtar are the 2008 Ukrainian Champions Cup Winners
2009. FC Shakhtar – the 2009 UEFA Cup Winners
Mircea Lucescu, the Head Coach, Rinat Akhmetov, the President of the Club, and Darijo Srna, the Captain of the Miners holding the UEFA Cup
2011. FC Shakhtar – the Ukrainian Premier League Champions and Cup Winners
Year 2012. Shakhtar are the Ukrainian League winners for the seventh time.
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The year 2006 was particularly memorable to Donetsk dwellers. Shakhtar finished the Premier League season being on par with Dynamo on points. Therefore, under the tournament regulations a ‘gold decider’ was held in Kryvyi Rih. The extra-time winner netted by Julius Aghahowa brought the Pitmen an impressive 2-1 win. This was the third championship gold earned by Shakhtar.
And in June 2006, construction of FC Shakhtar’s new stadium kicked off in Leninskoho Komsomolu recreation & leisure park in the vicinity of RSC Olympiyskyi.
After the season 2006-07 which was not quite successful in terms of the national competitions (just silver medals of the Ukrainian League and the country’s Cup runners-up) the impressive season 2007–08 followed. In 2008 FC Shakhtar won the home treble: the Country’s League, the Cup and the Super Cup. Fernandinho added another record to the club’s collection – he scored the 1000th goal in the Ukrainian League match played against FC Kharkiv.
Nevertheless, the first half of the season 2008–09 cannot be called a fairy tale. In the UKrainian League FC Shakhtar was second to Dynamo Kyiv, its major competitor; the club also missed out on the play-off stage of the UEFA Champions League (in spite of perfect chances to become the group winner instead of the club’s actual third position and its being entitled to claim the UEFA Cup). Though, as it turned out later, the year 2009 became the landmark after the history-making win of the Miners in the European arena.
After FC Shakhtar cleared the French Olimpique from the last UEFA Cup tournament (it was rearranged into the UEFA Europa League the following year), the Miners from Donetsk faced their archrival, Dynamo Kyiv, in the semifinal. The 1:1 away tie and the 2:1 home win opened the doors for the Miners to the European Cup final. FC Shakhtar had to measure its strength against Werder’s. The Miners won deservedly with the 2:1 score. The two goals were scored by Luiz Adriano and Jadson (extra time). For the first time in its history FC Shakhtar Donetsk won the European club tournament! It happened in the spring. And in the autumn…
The Grand Opening of the team’s new home ground located in Leninskogo Komsomola recreation and leisure park took place on 29 August 2009. The stadium received the name of the Donbass Arena. The construction and landscaping cost about USD 400m. The state-of-the-art arena can seat 51,504 spectators being ranked among the elite football stadia that makes it possible for the venue to host international matches.
The first official match at the Donbass Arena was played on 27 September 2009. It was the Ukrainian League match between FC Shakhtar Donetsk and FC Obolon’ Kyiv which ended in the whitewashing win of the Miners – 4:0.
In the season 2009/10 FC Shakhtar bid for the championship against FC Dynamo. Everything became clear on the next-to-last matchday, when the Pitmen beat Dynamo 1-0 on the Donbass Arena pitch. The Champions title has been their fourth one over the past 6 years. The men from Donetsk managed to enter the European cup spring, though they failed to get an aggregate win against Fulham London in the UEFA Europa League round of 32.
The Donetsk-based team opened the next season by earning a dramatic 7-1 win over Tavriya in the Super Cup of Ukraine match. The FC Shakhtar Museum – the largest sports museum in Ukraine - opened at the Donbass Arena on 14 July 2010. For the first time ever Shakhtar gained automatic entry to the group stage of the Champions League.
The Pitmen’s victorious start in the season 2010/11 extended to both the national and the European arenas. Despite the fact that not everything ran smoothly, the team managed to prove their top caliber. Shakhtar finished the season’s first half at the top of the Premier League table, being 12 points clear of their nearest rivals Dynamo. FC Shakhtar also won the UEFA Champions League group H, after defeating the big-name Arsenal FC (London) and ultimately reaching the knockout phase of the most prestigious European club tournament for the first time. According to the draw results the Pitmen will make their first last-16 appearance against Italian AS Roma.
Following the two legs’ results, FC Shakhtar beat the opposition and won 6-2 on aggregate. For the quarterfinals our team was drawn against Spanish Barcelona, the toughest of the last eight sides. The Pitmen failed to outplay them then. In the domestic Premier League the Pitmen won the championship title two Matchdays ahead of the final. The Ukrainian Cup final was an unquestioned highlight of the season. In the Cup decider Shakhtar outperformed Dynamo 2-0 in a spectacular and convincing way. This victory enabled FC Shakhtar to secure the third ‘golden double’ in their history: both the Premier League and the domestic Cup titles.
A Grand Show dedicated to celebrating the 75th Anniversary of FC Shakhtar Donetsk took place at the Donbass Arena on 14 May 2011.
The season 2011/12 turned out to be challenging for the Pitmen. It saw Mircea Lucescu’s charges make a confident start to the league, facing intense competition on multiple fronts. In the UEFA Champions League Shakhtar were drawn into the same group as Portuguese Porto, Russian Zenit and Cypriot APOEL, but the Orange-Blacks did not make it to European competitions’ spring stages. Thus, the team fully focused on the domestic battles.
In 2012 – both throughout the league season’s second half and in the Ukrainian Cup deciders – Shakhtar have shown their mettle, coupled with the will to win and real character. Donetsk-based side extended their winning streak to twelve in a row in both tournaments, proving that they have been the country’s strongest side in recent years.
After defeating Olexandriya on the closing matchday, FC Shakhtar Donetsk won the league title with the active support from their fans. The forward Yevhen Seleznyov was voted Man of the Match. Just a few days before that, the Pitmen outplayed Metalurh Donetsk and lifted the Cup of Ukraine. Following the season results, Mircea Lucescu cemented his status as the most decorated coach in independent Ukraine, having six domestic league titles and four cups, alongside three UEFA Super Cups and a UEFA Cup, under his belt.
The 2012-13 season was truly record-breaking for Shakhtar. Having started it by raising the Super Cup of Ukraine (10/07/12 Metalurh Donetsk 0-2 Shakhtar Donetsk), the team set several all-Ukrainian and club records by the end of the season. Among them, winning all matches in the first half of the season (first time in the history of the Ukrainian Premier League!), the longest winning streak (24 games) and the longest goal-scoring one (34 games). Throughout the season, Shakhtar topped the table and defended the title four rounds before the end of the league season by a wide margin of 13 points. Moreover, the team won the Ukrainian Cup title for the ninth time and by doing so, they repeated the national record.
A brilliant result produced by Shakhtar midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan stands out among the players’ individual achievements: by grabbing six braces and one hat trick, he eventually set the new national record and became the best scorer of the 2012-13 Ukrainian League season with 25 goals.
In the Champions League, despite a very strong competition against the major opponents Juventus and Chelsea, Shakhtar managed to reach the Last 16 to take on Borussia Dortmund. The home victory over Chelsea (2-1 on October 23, 2012) and the battling draw at Borussia on 13 February 2013 (2-2) are particularly memorable for Shakhtar fans.
In the season 2013-14, the Pitmen’s head coach Mircea Lucescu was tasked with virtually re-creating a strong team - Willian, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Fernandinho, Razvan Rat left the team.
Shakhtar went into the winter break as the league leaders but in the UEFA Champions League group, where the Pitmen faced Real Sociedad (Spain), Bayer 04 (Germany) and Manchester United (England), they claimed only third place. In the domestic league, Shakhtar managed to finish above Dnipro and Metalist in the heated battle, whereas in the UEFA Europa League they was unable to reach the next phase. The political crisis in Ukraine did not allow to start the championship as scheduled. Some of the matches took place without spectators. Shakhtar’s last home league match was held in Cherkasy, not at Donbass Arena. However, before the last round of the competition, Shakhtar became the Ukrainian champions for the fifth time in a row and for the ninth time in its history. |
