After hoisting the Ukraine Cup on May 22 with a 3-0 win over Chornomorets Odesa at home, Shakhtar Donetsk proved to its peers that it’s in a league of its own.
Shakhtar
had already clinched the Premier League in record fashion following a 1-1 tie
with Metalist Kharkiv on April 28, five weeks before the season’s end.
Then on May
3, UEFA, Europe’s top soccer governing body, released its latest ranking
of European soccer clubs. Shakhtar had a score of 94.95, placing a firm 13th
place on the continent.
The next
Ukrainian club on the rating list, Dynamo Kyiv, was rated 25th, with 68.95
points.
But
Shakhtar’s billionaire owner Rinat Akhmetov wants to reach new heights. He gave
coach Mircea
Lucescu a two-year extension on March 25 to reach the pinnacle of European
soccer in the Champion’s League.
Shakhtar
stuck gold in the 2009 UEFA Cup behind Lucescu’s leadership, but Champion’s
League silver has eluded him throughout his career.
Now he has
two years left to justify his contract extension with a club that is running
out of motivation to excel at home with four straight premier league victories
that, with each successive year, appears easier because the competition isn’t
keeping up with Shakhtar’s constantly improving game.
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached
at [email protected].
