Shakhtar Donetsk v Fulham: Donbass Arena hints at eastern Europes growing stature

By John Ley in Donetsk Published: 6:52PM GMT twenty-four February 2010

Grounds for success: Fulham players sight in the Donbass Arena, Ukrainian football"s honour and happiness Photo: ACTION IMAGES

Yet, sat in the centre, similar to a brightly-lit blue spaceship, sits the Donbass Arena, Ukrainian footballs honour and joy.

On Thursday night, Fulham turn the initial English side to suffer the imprudence and character this conspicuous locus offers. The city, twinned with Sheffield, might be a covenant to the captivate of industrial wealth, but the new track hints at eastern European footballs flourishing stature.

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Shakhtar Donetsk won the Uefa Cup last deteriorate and, in August, they denounced the Donbass Arena, a track that will be used for the finals of Euro 2012, hold mutually in Poland and Ukraine.

The $400 million, 51,000 chair architecture has already staged concerts by stars such as Beyonce Knowles, carrying been written by the same association that saw the construction of the City of Manchester Stadium, Munichs Allianz Arena and the home of the Olympic games, the Beijing National Stadium.

It boasts an well-developed engineering resolution the mountainous roof tiles outcome that gives the outcome of a drifting saucer, and as Fulhams players witnessed prior to precision last night, outmost lighting creates the track gleam similar to a beacon.

The stadium, situated in the Lenin Comsomol park, is so at contingency with the city, where both Arsenal and Tottenham have lost. In 1869 small existed here until Hughes determined a steel indent and spark mines. The city was, as a result, creatively declared Yuzovka, and as a covenant to his influence, one of the oldest structures here is the Hotel Great Britain, that dates from 1883, and stability the English theme, there is additionally a Hotel Liverpool.

Indeed, there is something erotically appealing about this city; punk fable and former Clash frontman Joe Strummer enclosed a strain entitled Shakhtar Donetsk on his 2001 manuscript Global A Go-Go.

A nearby sell-out throng has been urged to coax on the "Motherland", in what is the initial diversion here given Dec following the prolonged Ukrainian winter break. It might be reduction one grade centigrade or colder -- for the game, but the feverishness will be incited up when the men they call the Miners try to cover up the Cottagers.