Shakhtar Donetsk open letter as Chelsea host Champions League games

Chelsea 's Stamford Bridge will host Shakhtar's "home" games in the competition, as the Ukrainian champions take on Greek side AEK Athens, Portuguese powerhouses Sporting, Turkish giants Fenerbahce and European royalty in Real Madrid. "On behalf of everyone at Shakhtar Donetsk, thank you for welcoming us to your city as we host our UEFA Champions League matches at Stamford Bridge this season.

London is one of the greatest football cities in the world, and we are pleased to make it our home for our European campaign. The Champions League is about quality football, thrilling matches and exciting emotions.

But above all, it is about the fans. It is about packed stadiums and passionate support for the home team.

Shakhtar once had that kind of support at our home ground, the Donbas Arena, in Donetsk. Unforgettable times, when every one of our matches attracted more than 50,000 fans to what was then one of the best and most modern stadiums in Europe.

With this amazing support, we could compete with the best in Europe: Arsenal, Roma, Juventus and Barcelona. The Champions League at our arena was truly incredible.

Due to the war that came to Ukraine in 2014, our lives changed dramatically. We lost our city, our stadium, our home.

But we have never stopped competing. We have been forced to play every match away from Donetsk for more than 12 years, in four home stadiums across Ukraine.

Since the full-scale invasion by Russia in 2022, our European home matches have had to be played outside our country too. We are happy to say we have received warm welcomes in our adopted homes of Poland and Germany.

We know it will be the same in the United Kingdom. Footballers are normally very focused on routine and stability, so our current reality is not easy, especially when you are playing against the best teams in the world."