Shakhtar Donetsk pulled off one of the surprises of the tournament so far with a reversal that stunned the Nancy crowd into silence and sent the Ukrainian side and their small but jubilant set of supporters into a mouthwatering last sixteen clash against holders Sevilla. It was a resolute and dogged display from Donetsk, who picked up a total of five yellow cards for their efforts, but they worked impossibly hard and were worthy winners while Nancy will wonder how they managed to squander the opportunity to progress from the promising position they had found themselves in after the first leg. 

Nancy started with Pascal Berenguer in place of Frederic Biancalani, and a fit-again striker Issiar Dia was on the bench for the home team. Shakhtar's line up had a few surprises; Rat was unavailable, and Brandao started ahead of Bielik, and injury worries Dario Srna and Ciprian Marica both passed late fitness tests. Experienced campaigner Andriy Vorobey was on the bench, while Fernandinho started in place of the more defensive Jadson in midfield for the visitors. Shakhtar needed to get a goal as soon as possible or face another disappointing European exit, but started brightly. Marica threatened to open the scoring with a decent early shot, but Gregorini in the Nancy goal was too fast. Matuzalem and Elano also threatened, but Nancy's keeper held strong.

The home crowd urged their side on, worried that their team was trying to sit on the draw, hoping that the game would end without a Shakhtar goal. Puygrenier had a decent shot turned away by the ever-alert Bogdan Shust, but Nancy were not doing enough to pen Donetsk back, and the orange shirts continued to pile forward on the counter until the mercurial Fernandinho produced a moment of magic. A clever lay-off from Marica found the young Brazilian midfielder on the edge of the box. He skipped past three French defenders before slotting the ball calmly past a helpless Gregorini to make it suddenly seem like the impossible might just happen for the Ukrainians. An equaliser from Nancy would have taken the game into extra time, but try as they might, there seemed to be no way through the determined Shakhtar defences.

It was a hard-fought fixture, but Shakhtar were worth their win and their place in the next round for their never-say-die attitude, though they may pay the price with suspensions in the next round. They stuck to a game plan of fast, stinging counterattacks in the Eastern European style and Nancy, far too negative all night, were punished for not trying hard enough to bury this game in the first half, relying too much instead on negative tactics which backfired on them in the end.