As we detailed, Donetsk “Shakhtar”, which initially had to start its path in the European Cup campaign next season as the holder of the Cup of Ukraine from the 1st qualifying round of the Europa League, had chances for direct qualification to the main stage of this tournament.
Photo — shakhtar.comSkipping all the calculations, which everyone can familiarize themselves with via the above link, we remind that for Shakhtar to qualify directly for the main stage of the Europa League, exactly one condition needed to be met: that the winner of the final of the Croatian Cup was “Slaven Belupo”, and not “Rijeka”.
The first match of these teams ended in a draw, 1:1, and yesterday the return match took place, in which “Rijeka” won 1:0 and thus became the holder of the Croatian Cup.
As a result, the vacant position in the main stage of the Europa League was filled by Zagreb’s “Dinamo”, and “Shakhtar”, as was initially expected, will enter the competition starting from the 1st qualifying round of this tournament and, thus, will be able to fully enjoy the fierce struggle of the qualifying grid. Now, to reach the main stage of the Europa League, the “miners” need to pass four qualifying rounds.
It should be noted that the list of possible opponents for “Shakhtar” in the 1st qualifying round of the Europa League is as follows:
AEK (Cyprus)
“Häcken” (Sweden)
“Paks” (Hungary)
“Levski” (Bulgaria)
“Zirya” / “Karabakh” / “Sabah” (Azerbaijan)
“Ilves” (Finland)
“Aktobe” (Kazakhstan)
“Pristina” (Kosovo).
