Football in times of the corona virus? A home game without spectators? This is something new for VfL Wolfsburg. The Europa League opponent Shakhtar Donetsk, on the other hand, is used to coping with even tougher external circumstances.
Wolfsburg (dpa) - VfL Wolfsburg against Shakhtar Donetsk - this is a very special Europa League game this Thursday evening. After the spread of the corona virus, the Bundesliga soccer club is no longer allowed to play its home games in front of spectators.
And the Ukrainian series champion has had no real home games at all for more than five years. Because of the war in his home region, the 2009 UEFA Cup winner played in Lviv in western Ukraine between 2014 and 2017 and in the city of Kharkiv since then.
While the team with the 14 Brazilian professionals and their half-dozen Ukrainian national team is used to concentrating on league and European Cup matches again and again, despite the toughest external circumstances, this is exactly what is new to Wolfsburg. "There is no other way. We want to try not to be influenced by it," said VfL trainer Oliver Glasner, referring to the empty ranks on Thursday evening (9:00 p.m. / DAZN) in the Volkswagen Arena. How and whether the Europa League will be played in the next few weeks, nobody can say at the moment.
It is precisely these imponderables that the "wolves" are trying to hide for now. "We want to continue our European journey as long as possible," said Glasner. "Because these games are not everyday for VfL and not every year."
The Austrian is warned, however. Last season Eintracht Frankfurt marched through to the semi-finals of this competition under his compatriot Adi Hütter and defeated Inter Milan, Benfica Lisbon and Lazio Rome on the way there. The strongest opponent in terms of play - and many in Frankfurt agree - was Shakhtar Donetsk in the intermediate round. The games ended a good year ago with 2: 2 and 4: 1 for Eintracht, because they still fell in the winter break of the Ukrainian league and Donetsk got a red card early in the first leg.
"This is a really good team," said Glasner about the Wolfsburg round of 16 opponents. "They have a lot of speed, they are good in one on one and they even had more possession away from Manchester City in the Champions League." Donetsk failed in the preliminary round of the premier class just behind the English champions and the surprise team Atalanta Bergamo and then threw Lisbon out of the competition in the first knockout round of the Europa League Benfica.
Homepage of the VfL Wolfsburg
The Europa League at uefa.com
VfL Wolfsburg's Europa League squad
VfL Wolfsburg's European Cup record
Game data
Shakhtar Donetsk's Europa League squad
Shakhtar Donetsk's homepage
