Marked for Isaque
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Shakhtar do not lose
18 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match31 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Oleksandriya, and it could have been more.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The match ball belongs to Marlon Gomes, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Isaque, 19, steals the show — 7.83
Marked 7.83 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Eguinaldo is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.42 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Marlon Gomes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match31 Oct 2026
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match31 Oct 2026
Marlon Gomes among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Marlon Gomes on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Shakhtar and Oleksandriya.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2026
Shakhtar do the business in Europe
3‑3. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Shakhtar came through the finding-out well against KAA Gent.
Match3 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Shakhtar do not lose
13 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad5 Oct 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Isaque, 19, steals the show — 7.67
Marked 7.67 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Marlon Gomes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Lassina Traoré was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.57. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match3 Oct 2026
Polissia made Shakhtar work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Kauã Elias obliged against UCSA. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Shakhtar.
Match29 Aug 2026
Rukh will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Shakhtar were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Both of them Pedrinho's — 8.31
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.31, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Aug 2026
The fee is $6.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Polissia drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market31 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market31 Aug 2026
The chase for Oleksii Hutsuliak ended with $4.5M changing hands and Polissia out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Isaque, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.07
A mark of 8.07 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match29 Aug 2026
Shakhtar make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Shakhtar have 4 straight wins of it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
4‑0, and Lucas Ferreira took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Shakhtar tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
17 seasons and 217 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Isaque at 19 — 8.25
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Isaque did not need any: 8.25, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Eguinaldo has come up in conversations Shakhtar were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dmytro Riznyk and Shakhtar agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Pedrinho in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
Oleh Ocheretko wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Shakhtar hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Shakhtar can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.