Champions League: Shakhtar Donetsk v Chelsea full-time report

Alex Teixeira celebrates

Shakhtar Donetsk 2 Chelsea 1

Chelsea suffered their first defeat as reigning champions of Europe after losing 2-1 to a very impressive Shakhtar Donetsk.

Goals from Alex Teixeira and Fernandinho were enough to give Shakhtar a deserved victory as Chelsea were far from their best, who only had Oscar’s goal to cheer about near the end.

They may be setting the pace in the Premier League, but in the Champions League Chelsea are finding the going tough, and against a Ukrainian side who are on a high, they didn’t make things easy for themselves.

Shakhtar, who have won all 12 games in their domestic league, and a record 21 on the spin, were on the money tonight, and they kept up their fine record at the Donbass Arena against English oppositions, now winning four out of five, with Shakhtar boss Mircea Lucescu outwitting his counterpart Roberto Di Matteo.

Shakhtar made the perfect start to the match, scoring after just three minutes of play through Teixeira.

The hosts got a lucky break in the box when Chelsea captain John Terry blocked a shot, and with the rebound coming into the path of Teixeira, the Brazilian calmly rolled the ball into the back of the net beyond Petr Čech.

While Chelsea could only get one shot on target early on via Oscar, Shakhtar had a couple of efforts that could have troubled Čech. Fernandinho and a menacing run from the dangerous Willian.

Chelsea’s woes continued as they lost Frank Lampard to injury, and he was replaced by Eden Hazard- who was surprisingly left out of the starting line-up.

Every time Shakhtar came on the attack, they looked like scoring, and when Fernando Torres wasted a good opportunity for Chelsea at one end, Shakhtar quickly broke forward down the other end, but Henrik Mkhitaryan couldn’t find a teammate in the box, and if he did, it would have been the second goal for them.

Shakhtar’s leading goalscorer Mkhitaryan was denied by a fingertip save from Čech as the pressure continued to come on Chelsea, who just couldn’t do anything to keep hold of the ball for a significant amount of time.

Čech again was made to work to keep Chelsea in the game, thwarting Yaroslav Rakitskiy from close range after some sloppy Chelsea defending.

Chelsea needed to start the second half on the front foot, and the man who has been in great form recently Juan Mata almost drew them level, firing over the bar from the edge of the box after being picked out by Hazard.

Shakhtar were soon rewarded with the luxury of the second goal. It was Fernandinho who got it after being threaded in by Luiz Adriano, who collected a loose pass from Chelsea.

Chances were few and far between for Chelsea, but John Obi Mikel should have done better when the ball fell kindly to him from a corner. Instead, he blazed over the bar, and with it the opportunity had gone.

Hazard a few moments later had a shot on target as well, but the Belgian, along with Mata and Torres, were being kept very quiet in attack, and they were finding it difficult to have a major influence in trying to get Chelsea back into the match.

Shakhtar were cruising, and it came as a shock when Chelsea actually scored. Oscar was on hand for the reigning champions to tap in from Ivanović’s cutback on the byline. However, it didn’t prove to be enough as Shakhtar held on for a deserved three points.

İsmail Vedat

Find us on facebook and twitter