NYON, Switzerland: Exiled from its conflict-torn home city for a third season, Shakhtar Donetsk will start its quest to stay in the Champions League elite against Young Boys.
Shakhtar was drawn on Friday to host the Swiss league runner-up in the third qualifying round on July 26 or 27. The return match in Switzerland is the following week.
For the third straight season, “home” for Shakhtar is Lviv, more than 1,000 kilometers (about 650 miles) west of Donetsk, where conflict between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists have made the city unsafe.
“Can you imagine we don’t have our home, we don’t have our fans, we don’t have our stadium, we don’t have our training camp. We have nothing,” Shakhtar CEO Sergei Palkin said at UEFA headquarters.
Shakhtar has overcome the turmoil of being based in Kiev, and playing in Lviv, to play in the Champions League for the past two seasons. As runner-up in the Ukraine league for a second straight season, it must advance through two qualifying rounds to be in the 32-team group stage.
“It’s very difficult from a psychological point of view,” Palkin said of the club which has recruited only modestly despite selling two Brazilian stars, Douglas Costa and Alex Teixeira, in the past year.
Backed by billionaire owner Rinat Akhmetov, Shakhtar is as key to the identity of the mining region of Donbass and its people as Barcelona is to Catalonia.
“Their life is very, very hard now. Unbelievable problems,” Palkin said of the club’s fans. “To see their club playing it’s like a new breath of air. If anybody will tell us, ‘You will never return back,’ we will stop (playing).”
Shkahtar’s real home — the Donbass Arena, a 2012 European Championship host venue — has mostly survived the conflict and is an operations base for humanitarian aid.
“The stadium is good. We need one month maximum more or less to clean it,” said Palkin, though it is unclear when that might be.
The politics of Shakhtar’s and Ukraine’s situation in European soccer was again a factor in the draw made Friday. Shakhtar and Rostov were kept apart by a UEFA rule since 2014 blocking teams from Ukraine and Russia being drawn to play each other.
Rostov, an unheralded regional club in the competition for the first time, was paired with Anderlecht in the third qualifying round. Its reward for advancing could be a playoff against Manchester City, Roma or FC Porto.
In other pairings Friday, four-time champion Ajax was drawn with PAOK Thessaloniki, Fenerbahce will play Monaco and Sparta Prague will face Steaua Bucharest.
The first legs will be played on July 26-27, and return matches on Aug. 2-3.
In a separate qualifying draw for national champions, Olympiakos was drawn to play Sheriff Tiraspol or Hapoel Beer-Sheva. Sheriff and Hapoel will complete a second round series next week.
The winners advance to the playoff round, which will decide the final 10 places in the 32-team group stage which is drawn Aug. 25 in Monaco.
In the Europa League draw on Friday, West Ham was paired with Shakhtyor Soligorsk or Domzale, who are level at 1-1 in the second qualifying round.
Gent, which reached the round of 16 in the Champions League last season, plays Viitorul Constanta of Romania in the third qualifying round.
UEFA made both draws after observing silent tributes to victims of a deadly attack in Nice late Thursday.
Nice was a European Championship host city, and the French city’s team enters the Europa League at the group stage in September.
Shakhtar to face Young Boys in Champions League qualifier
Shakhtar to face Young Boys in Champions League qualifier
Kosovo players walk off in Romania game after ‘Serbia’ chants
Bucharest: A Nations League game between Romania and Kosovo in Bucharest was suspended on Friday in injury time after fans in the crowd shouted “Serbia!.”
The Kosovo players left the pitch after the chants, leading to the game to be paused with the score 0-0.
Animosity between Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s.
Kosovo and Serbia do not play each other in UEFA and FIFA tournaments.
Football’s world governing body opened disciplinary proceedings against Serbia during the 2022 World Cup after the team hung a flag in their changing room depicting Kosovo as part of Serbia.
Kosovo joined FIFA and European confederation UEFA in 2016.
When Romania played in Pristina, they beat Kosovo 3-0.
Ronaldo shines as Portugal rout Poland to reach Nations League last-eight
PORTO, Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Portugal staged a second-half supershow to crush Poland 5-1 and reach the Nations League quarter-finals on Friday.
Portugal join France, Germany, Italy and Spain in the last-eight while Poland’s hopes of going through from Group A1 were ended.
Having struggled to plant a shot on target in the first half, Portugal stepped on the accelerator after the break.
Rafael Leao broke the deadlock in Porto just before the hour mark after starting and finishing the move.
The AC Milan striker raced away and passed to Nuno Mendes whose cross from the left was headed powerfully past Marcin Bulka in the Portugal goal.
Thirteen minutes later, skipper Ronaldo got his name on the scoresheet, converting a penalty after Jakub Kiwior was penalized for a handball in the area.
Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes made it 3-0 in the 80th minute, scoring after a clever run by Vitinha.
Pedro Neto added the fourth three minutes later after Ronaldo’s fine pass which left the Polish defense stranded.
As Polish spirits sank, Ronaldo added his second and Portugal’s fifth in the 87th minute with a spectacular overhead kick before Dominik Marczuk tucked away a consolation goal for the visitors.
Poland had enjoyed the better chances before falling behind but their potency in front of goal was blunted by the absence of record goal-scorer Robert Lewandowski who was sidelined with a back injury.
Moments before Leao’s goal, Portuguese keeper Diogo Costa pulled off a fine save to deny Marczuk having also been alert to deny Nicola Zalewski in the first half.
Portugal’s best chance in the first 45 minutes had fallen to Ronaldo who fired a close-range effort over the bar from close range.
Japanese soccer player Kazuyoshi Miura says he will play next season at age 58
- Miura will turn 58 in February
- He intends to play next season for his fourth-tier Japanese club, Suzuka
TOKYO: Japanese soccer player Kazuyoshi Miura is several generations older than his teammates. His contemporaries retired decades ago. Lionel Messi is 37, and Cristiano Ronaldo is 39 — mere youngsters compared to Miura.
Miura will turn 58 in February, and the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported this week that he intends to play next season for his fourth-tier Japanese club, Suzuka. It will be his 40th season playing in professional soccer.
Miura is widely listed as the oldest active professional soccer player.
Miura scored 55 goals in 89 appearances and was a star with Japan’s national team in the 1990s.
He has played professionally in Brazil, Italy, Croatia, Australia and Portugal. He made his debut in 1986 with Brazilian club Santos, a side made famous by Brazilian star Pelé.
Japan beat Indonesia 4-0 to extend group lead in Asian World Cup qualifying
- Japan tops the group on 13 points with five games remaining in the round.
- Australia, Saudi Arabia and China all have 6 points, followed by Bahrain with five and Indonesia with 3
JAKARTA: Japan defeated Indonesia 4-0 on Friday to move seven points clear at the top of Group C in the third round of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.
Two goals in each half mean the Samurai Blue stays on course for an eighth successive World Cup appearance.
After a bright start from the home team, the 78,000 fans at a sold-out Gelora Bung Karno Stadium were silenced after 35 minutes as Daichi Kamada broke down the left and sent a cross which defender Justin Hubner put into his own net from close range.
Takumi Minamino then scored from inside the area off Kaoru Mitoma’s pass to extend the lead five minutes before the break.
Hidemasa Motira took advantage of an errant pass from Indonesia’s goalkeeper to make it 3-0 early in the second half and Yukinari Sugawara rounded out the scoring in the 69th minute.
Japan tops the group on 13 points with five games remaining in the round. Australia, Saudi Arabia and China all have six points, followed by Bahrain with five and Indonesia with three.
The top two from each of the three groups will be guaranteed a place at the World Cup, with the third- and fourth-place teams progressing to the next stage.
Pogba and Juventus end contract mutually before he returns from doping ban
- The Serie A club never seemed overly enthusiastic about welcoming Pogba back
- “Juventus Football Club and Paul Pogba announce that they have reached a mutual agreement for the termination of their contract as of Nov. 30, 2024,” the Bianconeri said
TURIN, Italy: Paul Pogba will no longer be a Juventus player from next month.
Juventus announced on Friday they came to “a mutual agreement” with Pogba to cancel his contract despite the France World Cup winner having a ban for doping slashed last month.
The Serie A club never seemed overly enthusiastic about welcoming Pogba back after his four-year ban for doping was reduced to 18 months following an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The 31-year-old Pogba, who will be free to resume his career in March 2025, had said he was ready to give up money to play for Juventus again.
“Juventus Football Club and Paul Pogba announce that they have reached a mutual agreement for the termination of their contract as of Nov. 30, 2024,” the Bianconeri said in a brief statement. “The club wish Paul the very best for his professional future.”
Pogba tested positive for testosterone in August last year and the Juventus midfielder was handed the maximum punishment by Italy’s anti-doping court.
But CAS judges cut Pogba’s ban as they acknowledged a lack of intent and said his positive test was the result of erroneously taking a supplement prescribed to him by a medical doctor in Florida.
Pogba’s contract with Juventus was set to expire in June 2026.
“My time at Juventus has come to an end. It has been a privilege to pull on the shirt of the Bianconeri and to share so many special memories together,” Pogba said in a statement.
“I cherish the memories we made. They live on. Even in the most difficult moments over the past year, your support was crucial and I want to thank Juve fans around the world for their compassion.”
Pogba was the most expensive soccer player in history when he joined Manchester United from Juventus for a fee of 105 million euros ($113 million) in 2016.
He starred in France’s World Cup triumph in 2018 and returned to Juventus as a free agent in 2022. But injuries limited him to just eight Serie A appearances in his second spell at the club before his ban last year.
“I am looking forward to the next chapter of my career and to stepping out on the pitch with my next club,” Pogba added.
