Shakhtar Donetsk beat French Brest in the 7th round of the Champions League. Nominally, the home match at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany ended with a score of 2:0.
In the first half, the Ukrainian team dominated both in ball control and in creating dangerous chances, scoring a goal already in the 18th minute. Marlon kicked into the center almost from his own goal, Brest captain Brendan Chardonnay lost the ball under pressure from Kevin, the Brazilian ran away one on one with Marco Bizot and opened the scoring.
The French rushed to win back, but Riznyk played flawlessly against Shakhtar. having fought off several dangerous blows.
The second goal was scored in the 37th minute. Georgy Sudakov made a magnificent pass to Irakli Azarov and the Georgian was brought down by the Brest goalkeeper in his own penalty area. The referee immediately pointed to the 11-meter penalty, which Georgiy converted, scoring a penalty in Panenka style.
Shakhtar not only controlled the ball (69% possession), but also created more dangerous chances. The Brest defense allowed opponents to easily penetrate into the penalty area several times, which led to shots on goal. Thus, Kevin and Sudakov regularly created pressure on goalkeeper Bizot, forcing him to make difficult saves.
“Brest,” in turn, tried to act on counterattacks, but their efforts did not bring results. The most notable moment was Hugo Magnetti's shot in the 41st minute, which was reliably parried by Riznyk.
In the second half, Marino Pusic's team acted easily and naturally, without giving their opponents a single chance to win back. The Miners did not play to keep the score, trying to bring the matter to a defeat.
In the 60th minute, “Brest” released three fresh players, which immediately revived the guests’ play in attack, but this did not affect the result in any way. The highlight came in the 79th minute when Riznyk went into Spiderman mode and pulled a dead ball from the top nine..
In the last seconds, Shakhtar scored the third goal, but after watching the video replay, chief referee Sandro Scherer canceled the goal.
The Donetsk club will play its next match in the Champions League on January 29 against Borussia Dortmund..