Two Ukrainian clubs have reached the knockout stages in European competitions this season - Shakhtar Donetsk dropped from the Champions League to the Europa League, while Dnipro-1 play in the Europa Conference League.
And there is another story in UEFA tournaments too, as Rukh Lviv reached the last 16 in the UEFA Youth League.
To understand Rukh Lviv’s amazing journey, let’s focus on one of their players - Vitaliy Roman.
The 19-year-old right back started his career with their city rivals, Karpaty Lviv, before joining the Rukh Lviv’s youth side.
In August 2021 he made his professional debut in a league match against Dnipro-1.
In the first part of the 2021-22 season he made six appearances, and was on the way to receiving his first call-up for the under-19 national team.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the league was terminated, and UEFA moved to postpone the under-19 matches in the U19 European Championship qualifiers.
Although the league was not resumed, Vitaliy Roman was eventually called up to the national team when the competition resumed in June 2022.
In the decisive match against the Netherlands, he assisted the winning goal, but Ukraine missed out on first place due to the fair play tie-breaker - Ukraine was three yellow cards behind Serbia and finished second.
Unfortunately, in that match against the Netherlands, Ukrainian players were booked three times, and Roman was one of them.
Last summer, the Ukrainian league started up again, and the football association decided to send Lviv, who were leading the country’s under-19 league champions at the time the tournament was suspended, to the UEFA Youth Cup.
Just like the others, Rukh Lviv had to host their matches abroad. In the first round they played Poland’s Zaglebia Lubin and, to save money, both matches were played in the same stadium in Lubin.
Surprisingly, Rukh Lviv won 1-0 in the first leg and drew the second 0-0.
Their opponent in the second round was a stronger side, Galatasaray, but, again, they played well, winning 3-1 in the first leg in Istanbul, and again by the same scoreline in the return fixture.
In the play-off round, their opponents would come from one of the clubs qualifying from the Champions League path, which includes the best youth clubs in Europe.
They were drawn against Inter Milan, whose squad included some of Italy’s best under-17 and under-19 players, and were led by the former Romanian international, Cristian Chivu.
This time, the tie would be fought over one leg, and Lviv were drawn at thome.
Serhii Panchenko scored first for the Ukrainians, but Inter equalised, and the game had to be decided by penalty shootout.
After five penalties for each side, the score was tied, 3-3. For the sixth penalty, Inter picked Aleksandar Stanković.
The 17-year-old Serbian is the son of a former Inter player, Dejan Stanković. He has played for several Serbian youth national teams and has the experience to take such a pivotal kick.
Stanković shot for the left side of the goal, but the goalkeeper saved it.
The decisive penalty was going to be taken by Roman. He took a confident shot and scored, sealing a 4-3 penalty win and knocking Inter out of the competition.
And now Rukh Lviv are nearing their round of 16 match, against another Italian side - AC Milan - and this time away from home.
They have seen off one heavyweight from Milan, could they do it again?
Edited by Alex Smith
