No man has spent more to win the Champions League thanChelsea’s Russian owner, Roman Abramovich. And until now, no club hassuccessfully defended the title in back-to-back seasons since the competitionconverted to its league format in 1992. Already, Chelsea’s grip is loosening onthe trophy it captured in May. The Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov’s team,Shakhtar Donetsk, summarily outplayed Chelsea 2-1 though perhaps 4-1 would havebeen a truer reflection of the game.
The Champions League trophy has never gone to a club fromEastern Europe, but if this match is anything to go by, there is a realprospect of that changing in the foreseeable future. This team won the UEFA Cupin 2009. It is unbeaten in 34 games in all competitions and has shown that ithas the fire in its belly and the craft afoot to match Juventus in Italy andbeat Chelsea in its fabulous 52,000-capacity Donbass Arena in Donetsk. Chelsea center back David Luiz was quick toacknowledge their win saying “Donetsk played with lots of intelligence. Theydidn’t let us into the game until the last 15 minutes and they deserved towin.”
The teams will meet again in two weeks. Chelsea will thenhave the familiarity of its own stadium, Stamford Bridge. It will have homesupport, where Donetsk enjoyed a crowd that whistled and booed when the awayside had the ball, and cooed when the Brazilians in orange jerseys turned onthe style for them. Who does Shakhtar remind us of? Maybe not Barcelona yet,the Catalan club that struggled to break brave resistance by Glasgow Celticuntil Jordi Alba worked and finished a typical winner in the fourth and finalminute of added time at the Camp Nou.
Perhaps a better comparison, and still a compliment to thelevel the Ukraine club has reached, is Manchester United. The Champions Leagueis different from the old European Cup because that was a knockout event,round-by-round. Today’s version is drawn out to guarantee 32 teams at least sixpay-days, and different because the rewards have multiplied. But one thing is the same: Latin players fromSouth America have always flourished in it.
