Champions League - Shakhtar shock Barcelona

Eurosport - Wed, 10 Dec 10:13:00 2008

Barcelona suffered a shock 3-2 home defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk in their final Champions League match while Sporting beat Basel 1-0 in Switzerland.

FOOTBALL 2008-2009 Champions League - Shakhtar players celebrate a goal against Barcelona in the Camp Nou - 0

The Group C encounter was meaningless. Barca and Sporting had already qualified - the Catalan giants as group winners - Shakhtar were through to the UEFA Cup, while Basel's European season was over.

Olexandr Gladkiy hit a brace for Shakhtar against a weakened Barcelona side ahead of the Clasico against Real Madrid on Saturday.

Gladkiy gave visitors the lead on 31 minutes, finishing from inside the penalty area after Willian had cut back Razvan Rat's ball down the left channel.

The forward doubled the advantage on 58 minutes with a header from close range, only for former Arsenal left-back Sylvinho to smash inside the near post less than a minute later after playing a one-two with Seydou Keita.

Shakhtar restored their two-goal cushion through Fernandinho at the far post in the 76th minute, the Brazilian finishing Rat's low cross into an open goal.

The Blaugrana again pulled one back when substitute Eidur Gudjohnsen clipped a lovely ball over the top for Sergio Busquets to control and finish with seven minutes left, but they were unable to score an equaliser in the closing stages.

The home defence looked shaky with expensive 21-year-old Martin Caceres exposed on a number of occasions.

But Barca boss Josep Guardiola will not be too downhearted after seeing several young prospects fit into his fluid passing system, including Pedro, Sergio Busquets, Victor Sanchez and Victor Vazquez.

There was a flurry of yellow cards issued by English referee Mike Riley to away players in the last minutes as Shakhtar held on for the win.

Basel 0-1 Sporting

Sporting wrapped up a successful group campaign with a largely meaningless 1-0 away win over hapless Swiss champions Basel.

The Lisbon side dominated the early exchanges and were rewarded with a well-worked goal from Yannick Djalo in the 19th minute.

Basel, rooted to the bottom of the group with one point from their previous five outings, came close to a freakish reply on the hour when Marco Carreira nearly diverted a hopeful Benjamin Huggel pass over his own goal-line.

Substitute Valentin Stocker then drew an impressive close-range save from reserve Sporting keeper Tiago during a frantic final flurry from the home side in an increasingly heavy snowstorm.

Jonathan Symcox / Reuters

Comment 1 - 13 of 13

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  1. is barcelona indomitable? why are u guys talking like­ minors??

    From cmiller_999, on Wed 10 Dec 8:43AM
  2. I so much believe in Barca Team.There is no rock they­ can not move.up Barca.

    From ojeomokhai, on Wed 10 Dec 7:06AM
  3. This Game don't mean anything for Barca, but they­ must take it a little bit seriously...anyway, wait for­ Saturday game against Real, then you will see a good­ team

    From dvatra, on Wed 10 Dec 1:56AM
  4. u aint gunner win CL

    From Araw, on Wed 10 Dec 1:22AM
  5. There is only 1 meaning of this game that the group­ fixture is completed. Barca is already guaranteed­ winner of group C n so do the runner up. Pep is doing­ the right thing; with el classico ahead he must keep­ his core players fresh n thats what he did.. n not­ least that he gave his young players some high football­ xperience. Any manager would have done the same. Well,­ ofcourse a win would be better still..!

    From carlamms, on Wed 10 Dec 12:30AM
  6. @comment 5.
    It was Barca's second team, played in a­ meaningless match for them. They would have won their­ group no matter what happened. I wouldn't expect to­ see that line up in the next round.

    From Charlie G, on Tue 9 Dec 11:41PM
  7. the game meant nothing so the result means nothing!

    From stanleyippkiss2003, on Tue 9 Dec 11:38PM
  8. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Barselona the best????!!! I don't think so.

    From vojislavpejic, on Tue 9 Dec 10:49PM
  9. d_ciskara, comment 3:
    Obviously not as they were­ beaten...if you haven't already noticed that.

    From sappercommando25, on Tue 9 Dec 10:37PM
  10. Forza Shakhtyor! A great result for us tonight!

    From SIMON, on Tue 9 Dec 10:12PM
  11. barca's the best!!!!

    From Dito, on Tue 9 Dec 9:57PM
  12. mui bien barsa

    From Ciprian, on Tue 9 Dec 9:46PM
  13. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    barcelona u going down!!!!!!

    From dima, on Tue 9 Dec 9:45PM
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