An extra time goal from Brazilian midfielder Jadson ensured Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk won the last ever UEFA Cup final with a 2-1 victory over Bundesliga side Werder Bremen in Istanbul.
Jadson’s strike from 15 yards out lacked pace, but Werder goalkeeper Tim Wiese failed to save the shot and it slipped through his grasp to trickle over the line. However, there was to be drama in the final minyte of extra time when Werder striker Claudio Pizarro thought he had taken the final into a penalty shoot-out, but the goal was ruled out after the on-loan Chelsea forward was adjudged to have tugged back defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy before nudging the ball home. The victory means Mircea Lucescu’s side become the first team from Ukraine to lift a major European trophy and gives eastern Europe a third UEFA Cup in five years after recent successes for Russian sides CSKA Moscow and Zenit St Petersburg. Next season the competition is being rebranded and renamed to become the Europa League. Shakhtar were always the classier of the two sides and they should have gone ahead in the fifth minute when Luiz Adriano was allowed the time and space to turn on the edge of the box, but he fired just wide with the goal gaping. He was almost made to pay a minute later as Shakhtar failed to clear Sebastian Boenisch’s long throw but Frank Baumann miscued his effort. However, Adriano made amends for his earlier miss in the 24th-minute when he seized on a through-ball that had wrong-footed the Bremen defence and lifting a superb chip over the onrushing Wiese.
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Moments after his goal, Luiz Adriano found himself on the corner of the box again but lashed the ball over the bar, and his compatriot Willian then broke purposefully into the box, only to produce a tame finish straight at Wiese. But just as Shakhtar were threatening to extend their advantage, Bremen hit back through their own Brazilian, Naldo. The defender stepped up to take a 34th-minute free-kick, striking it so hard that goalkeeper Andrei Pyatov could only help it on its way into the net. At the other end, Wiese looked more assured in denying Mariusz Lewandowski’s powerful strike and the teams went in level at the end of an absorbing first half. Wiese was back in action soon after the restart, doing well to punch away Darijo Srna’s free-kick from the right and Jadson’s strike from the left. With the game petering out extra-time looked increasingly likely and once it got under way, it was almost inevitable that it would be an error that would finally settle the issue. Less predictable was that Wiese would be the culprit, horribly misjudging Jadson’s soft shot from 12 yards and undoing all his good work through the night by letting it bobble past him into the net.
