{"id":349978,"date":"2023-11-28T21:00:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T22:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=349978"},"modified":"2023-11-28T23:01:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T23:01:35","slug":"champions-league-fairytale-rolls-on-for-ukraine-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=349978","title":{"rendered":"Champions League fairytale rolls on for Ukraine club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shakhtar Donetsk continued its fairytale run in the Champions League<\/a> by beating Antwerp 1-0 in Group H on Wednesday (AEDT).<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian club again played its 'home' game \ufeffin Hamburg because of the Russian invasion of its country.<\/p>\n

The war has meant many top players moved on but \ufeffdespite the turmoil Shakhtar (three wins, two losses) remains in the hunt for a place in the knockout stages of the glamour competition.<\/p>\n

Watch football's biggest clubs and best players in the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League,<\/strong><\/em> streaming ad free, live and exclusive on Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mykola<\/p>\n

Mykola Matviyenko's diving header from a free kick in the 12th minute proved the difference.<\/p>\n

"Absolutely huge winners," Mark Langdon said on Stan Sport.<\/p>\n

"It was a deserved win for Shakhtar and at least guarantees them Europa League, which they definitely would have settled for when the draw was made."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Maxwell equals insane record to rescue Aussies<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Warner no certainty for fairytale Test farewell<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Ponga sets sights on regaining Maroons jersey\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Giorgi<\/p>\n

Barcelona later beat Porto 2-1 to go top of the group on 12 points with Porto and Shakhtar both on nine. <\/p>\n

Shakhtar has been a threat from set pieces in all of its group stage games so far and did it again as Matviyenko dived forward to head in off Oleksandr Zubkov's wide free kick.<\/p>\n

Shakhtar goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk made some crucial saves from first Michel-Ange Balikwisha and later Arbnor Muja to keep his team in the lead.<\/p>\n

\"Champions<\/p>\n

Antwerp goalkeeper Jean Butez twice tipped shots onto the crossbar, with an effort from Irakli Azarovi in the 55th minute and another from captain Taras Stepanenko's seven minutes after that.<\/p>\n

Deep into stoppage time, experienced defender Toby Alderweireld had a chance to salvage what would have been Antwerp's first point of the campaign.<\/p>\n

His shot from close range was parried by Riznyk, who then also saved an Alderweireld header with the last touch of the game.<\/p>\n

\"Referee<\/p>\n

The referee sent off Antwerp winger Muja after the final whistle following a confrontation between players from both teams.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, \ufeffsubstitute Ciro Immobile scored twice in the final 10 minutes and Lazio beat Celtic 2-0 to move atop Group E.<\/p>\n

Gustav Isaksen set up both goals, first with a deflected shot that wound its way toward Immobile, who pounded it into the net from close range in the 82nd minute.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportFC\/status\/1729585247304523920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Three minutes later, Isaksen floated in a ball over the top and Immobile sprinted past one defender and spun around another before slotting in.<\/p>\n

Lazio will advance if Atletico Madrid beats Feyenoord later.<\/p>\n

Celtic is now assured of finishing last in Group E.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shakhtar Donetsk continued its fairytale run in the Champions League by beating Antwerp 1-0 in Group H on Wednesday (AEDT). The Ukrainian club again played […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":349980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=349978"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349985,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349978\/revisions\/349985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/349980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=349978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=349978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=349978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}