After five rounds, the miners secured themselves a European spring. And the victory in today's game against "Porto" would have taken "Shakhtar" to the Champions League knockout stage.

The start of the match was dominated by the home team. The referee had to immediately caution after a header from Taremi, later Rakitskiy corrected the goalkeeper's mistake by blocking an attack. However, on the 9th minute "Porto" scored — following a cross from deep in the field Evanilson passed the ball to Galeno, who scored.

"Shakhtar" responded with a shot over the bar by Sikan, also not bad was the attempt of Gocoleshvili, who finished off a counterattack but could not outplay Costinha. And on the 29th minute there was a combination between Stepanenko-Zubkov-Sikan, and Ukrainians equalized. Later in miners' possession Krisikov broke through, to which Portuguese responded with an unsafe shot by Galeno that Riznik saved. And still at halftime the hosts went ahead — omnipresent Galeno completed his brace with a goal from the penalty line.

In the second half there were also enough goals. On the 62nd minute after losing possession to miners, Galeno assisted Taremi. Ukrainians responded with their own goal — Sikan was fouled in front of the opponent's penalty area, went further and scored, while the ball ricocheted off Costinha and Eustaquio into the net. However, very soon 40-year-old captain of Portuguese Pepe broke through Riznik after a corner kick. Near the end of the match players who came on as substitutes scored — Consiga and Egilhardt.

In summary, we have an exciting match in which "Shakhtar" lost with a score of 3:5. Therefore, orange-and-black occupy third place in the group, which gives them a spot in the Europa League knockout stage. The draw for this round will take place on December 18 (start — at 14:00 Kyiv time).

In the lineup of "Shakhtar" in the match participated players who were called up for the November national team roster: Riznik, Bondar (yellow card), Matviyenko, Sudakov (yellow card), Stepanenko (assist goal), Zubkov (assist goal, substituted on 85th minute), Sikan (goal), Nazarina (substituted on 85th minute, yellow card).

Champions League. Group stage. Group N

6th round

"Porto" (Portugal) — "Shakhtar" (Ukraine) — 5:3 (2:1)

Goals: Galeno (9, 43), Taremi (62), Pepe (75) — Sikan (29), Eustaquio (72, own goal), Egilhardt (88).

"Porto": Costinha, Sanchez (Mario, 76), Pepe (c), Cardoso, Zaidu, Pepe (Franku, 81), Varela, Eustaquio (Gruich, 81), Galeno (Jaime, 88), Taremi, Evanilson (F. Consiga, 81).

Substitutes: Ramush, Carmo, Wendell, Namasso, Navarro, Borjes, Folha.

Coach: Sergio Consiga.

"Shakhtar": Riznik, Gocoleshvili, Bondar, Rakitskiy (Kelsi, 73), Matviyenko, Bondarenko (Nazarina, 85), Stepanenko (c), Sudakov, Zubkov (Egilhardt, 85), Sikan, Krisikov (Nevertone, 59).

Substitutes: Rudko, Lemkin, Castillo, Shevchuk, Azarov, Pedrinho, Miroshy, Kozik.

Referee: Istvan Kovach (Romania).

Yellow cards: S. Consiga (30, not on the field), Ramush (30, not on the field) — Sudakov (54), Nazarina (90), Bondar (90+1).

December 13. Porto. Dragao Stadium.

"Antwerp" (Belgium) — "Barcelona" (Spain) — 3:2 (1:1)

Final standings