A mixed week for Ukrainian teams in European competitions saw Dynamo Kyiv, the country’s flagship club, lose to Ajax in the Champions League qualifying round, thereby demoting it to the Europa League. Dynamo joins Lviv Karpaty and Kharkiv Metalist in the Europa League, which is a big achievement for both. Metalist has recent experience of European competition, though Dnipropetrovsk failed to join them when it lost to Polish opposition. Nonetheless, this is great news for Karpaty Lviv. Their last foray into European club football was back in 1999 and the group stage will help to publicize the name of Lviv, one of the host cities for the Euro-2012 championships. They excelled by beating Turkish opposition in dramatic fashion.

Although the draw for the group stages of the Europa League has not been too kind for Karpaty, with games against Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund and France’s PSG, it has been kinder for Metalist and Dynamo and they should be looking to progress to the knockout stage. In the Champion’s League, Shakhtar Donetsk will take on England´s Arsenal, Portugal´s Braga and Serbia´s Partizan in Group H of the group stage. Shakhtar should expect to proceed to the knockout stage in spring, but if they finish third they will drop down to the Europa League round of 32. A big well done to the Ukrainian teams in Europe at a time when problems seem to be dominating domestic football. Play your hearts out and do the country proud!