Reuters Soccer Blog

Shakhtar win is fitting end for UEFA Cup

The way the UEFA Cup has been going, it was fitting, perhaps even inevitable, that Shakhtar Donetsk triumphed over Werder Bremen to win the competition’s final final before its rebranding as the Europa League.

As Sonia Oxley pointed out, Easter European teams have been the ones taking it seriously of late, and as Justin Palmer noted, the Brazilian influence on the competition has been getting ever stronger. Werder were missing Diego and it showed, as they searched in vain for inspiration after falling behind for a second time. Shakhtar, of course, have far the greater Brazilian contingent.

We’ll have more on this later but for now, click here for our full report, here for reaction and here for a great slideshow of photos.

And as someone who was based in Germany for a long time, I must just spare a thought for Tim Wiese, who had another European night to forget.

PHOTO: Shakhtar Donetsk celebrate with the UEFA Cup trophy after defeating Werder Bremen in final soccer match at Sukru Saracoglu stadium in Istanbul May 20, 2009. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

Eastern Europe’s UEFA Cup love affair still burning

What have the UEFA Cup and the Eurovision song contest got in common?

A) Some people don’t take them as seriously as they could.

B) They give lesser known participants the chance to appear on prime-time TV.

C) East European countries have started to dominate them

And the answer, I’m starting to think, is C … because of A and B.

This year will be the third year in the past six that an ex-Soviet team plays in the UEFA Cup final after victories by Russian sides Zenit St Petersburg last year and CSKA Moscow in 2005.

Euro 2008 — Austrian passions stirring at last

Up until a few weeks ago you’d have been fined in Austria for flying a flag on your car. Only ambassadors and government officials were allowed to that. But bureaucracy is slipping and passions are stirring, albeit slowly, as Euro 2008 approaches.

In the last few days Austrian flags have been fluttering from cars in the capital after the government lifted the ban for the duration of the tournament to help drum up some atmosphere. Some of Austria’s cheap supermarket chains will sell tournament merchandise half-price this weekend, and at last the Austrians, whose first sporting love will always be skiing, are starting to show an interest.

Culture reigns supreme in Vienna, famed for its balls, its classical music and art galleries. When I arrived in Vienna in mid-May the city’s residents still pulled faces when asked if they were looking forward to the tournament. Drunk fans might smash windows or make a noise at night.

“Hosted by losers” T-shirts and underwear became must-have items, while the son of a former Austria player even launched a website urging the team to withdraw to spare the country the sort of international humiliation usually only experienced by Britain at the Eurovision song contest.

But now it seems they may want to impress after all. The fan zone will be in the heart of the city, shutting off one of Vienna’s main arteries — a sweeping avenue flanked by imposing imperial architecture. Curiosity if nothing else will have the locals heading off to the fan zone, perhaps to check there is no trespassing on the monuments.

The Austrian team is ranked 101st in the world and not even the most patriotic fans fancy their chances of winning the tournament. But the Austrians are desperate to outperform the Swiss, on and off the pitch, and remember, no one outside Germany thought they’d be able to throw a party at the World Cup, and look how much fun that was.