Palace in Europe: Get to know Shakhtar

First-team

3 hours ago

Crystal Palace have reached the last four of the UEFA Conference League with Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk our opponents over two legs. Here's a quickfire guide to our fellow semi-finalists...

Factfile

Manager: Arda Turan
League Position: 1st (Ukrainian Premier League)
Nickname: The Miners
Home stadium: Arena Lviv / Henryk Reyman Municipal Stadium
Founded: 1936

Shakhtar's Season So Far...

After finishing an unusually low third in the league last season — their lowest league finish in three decades — Shakhtar moved quickly to appoint new head coach Arda Turan last summer.

The club also parted ways with two of their most creative talents, Heorhii Sudakov and Kevin, in August with the latter joining Fulham, while once again turning to Brazil for reinforcements by signing several highly rated young prospects.

The domestic campaign began in unexpected fashion. Rather than familiar rivals Dynamo Kyiv, it was LNZ Cherkasy who emerged as early title challengers.

Shakhtar’s struggles deepened with a heavy 4-1 home defeat to LNZ, followed by a painful cup loss to Dynamo Kyiv later in October. Combined with just one win in the league that month, it appeared the Miners were heading for another season without the league title.

However, a crucial victory over their biggest rivals Dynamo Kyiv on 2 November proved to be a turning point. Since then, Shakhtar have remained unbeaten in league competition.

A recent draw against LNZ Cherkasy and victory over FC Polissya have lifted them to the top of the table, with another league title now firmly within reach.

Back-to-back wins followed and at the time of writing they are eight points clear at the top of the table, in pole position to win the title.

Their European campaign started way back in early-July in UEFA Europa League qualifying. Finnish side Ilves was swept aside 6-0 in the opening round of qualifying to set up a meeting with Beşiktaş.

An impressive 4-2 away win at the Turkish giants helped earn a 6-2 aggregate victory, with the Miners now just one tie away from the league phase.

A penalty shootout defeat to Greek side Panathinaikos in the third qualifying round, after two goalless legs plus extra-time, meant the Europa League dream was over.

But that meant Shakhtar moved into the Conference League, which has proved a blessing. After seeing off Servette FC in the qualifying round, four wins out of six league phase games saw them finish sixth in the final league table which meant advancing directly to the Round of 16.

A difficult tie against Polish champions Lech Poznań followed. Shakhtar produced an impressive 3-1 away victory in the first leg, with Isaque Silva scoring a spectacular overhead kick that will surely be remembered as one of the goals of the season.

The return leg proved trickier. Complacency appeared to creep in as Shakhtar found themselves 2-0 down at half-time. However, a fortunate own goal — following a series of deflections — helped settle nerves and ensured progression to the quarter-finals.

On paper, AZ Alkmaar represented their toughest challenge of the campaign. But the Ukranian Cup holders responded in emphatic fashion, producing a commanding 3-0 victory in the first leg — a match made even more significant by the presence of club president Rinat Akhmetov, who attended his first game in 12 years.

A disciplined performance in the second leg earned a 2-2 draw, sealing progression to only the third European semi-final in Shakhtar’s history.

The Manager

Arda Turan was one of Turkey's modern day greats as a player, winning 100 caps for his country over an 11-year international career. Primarily an attacking midfielder, the highlight was helping his country finish third at Euro 2008.

He also won La Liga under Diego Simeone at Atlético Madrid and reached the final of the Champions League in the same season. Turan later moved to Barcelona before ending his career in his homeland with Galatasaray.

Retiring from playing in 2022, he moved into coaching a year later with Turkish club Eyüpspor. Turan them to the second-tier league title in his first full season, they then finished sixth in the first campaign in the top division.

He then moved to Shakhtar, taking them to a European semi-final and the brink of the title in his first full campaign.

Where do they play?

Since 2014 when Russia invaded the Donbas region, Shakhtar have been unable to play in in their home city of Donetsk. Originally moving their operations to Lviv, Shakhtar also had spells playing in Kharkiv and Kyiv either side of the full-scale war in Ukraine beginning in 2022.

Since the start of the 2023/24 season, Shakhtar has played home matches once again at Arena Lviv.

However, European ties require a different home. All Ukrainian club sides currently have a 'home' stadium in Poland to host their European ties. Palace have already experienced this already in our Conference League campaign, travelling to Lublin to face Dynamo Kyiv.

Shakhtar have played 2025/26 European home ties in Kraków at the Henryk Reyman Municipal Stadium.

One to watch

Kauã Elias is the teams top scorer this season and has proven the latest smart Brazilian import for Shakhtar. The 20-year-old former Fluminense forward was rated as one of the top 60 best young talents in football back in 2023 and has continued to show progression since joining the Miners last year.

One of the best at carrying the ball up the pitch, with a good mix of strength and balance, Elias has four goals and two assists from the European campaign so far this season.

While at Fluminense his performances earned public praise from teammate, and former Chelsea, PSG and Brazil defender, Thiago Silva.

Match Details

Shakhtar Donetsk v Crystal Palace

Thursday, 30th April
20:00 BST
Henryk Reyman Municipal Stadium
UEFA Conference League semi-final

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