published: thursday 27 february 2014, 20.54cet fc shakhtar donetsk 1-2 fc viktoria plzeň (agg: 2-3)
daniel kolář and milan petržela got the goals as a heroic back-foot performance earned the czech champions a famous victory.
fc viktoria plzeň will meet fc chornomorets odesa or olympique lyonnais in the uefa europa league round of 16 after two first-half breaks undid fc shakhtar donetsk in ukraine.
having accounted for ssc napoli at this stage last season, the czech champions claimed an equally impressive round of 32 scalp in donetsk, daniel kolář and milan petržela scoring in the space of five minutes, before plzeň refused to buckle under sustained shakhtar pressure. luiz adriano hit back for shakhtar from close range on 88 minutes, but time had already run out for mircea lucescu's side.
after a decent start, plzeň were stretched more and more; marián Čišovský cut out one dangerous ball and intervened again to block an ılsinho attempt. kolář's opener on 29 minutes was very much against the run of play. ıt took three shakhtar players to dispossess stanislav tecl in the box, yet kolář pounced as the ball came loose, beating andriy pyatov with the help of a touch off a defender.
ıncensed, shakhtar poured forward again, and petr bolek – standing in for the injured matús kozáčik – had to smother darijo srna's powerful effort. within seconds it was 2-0, though. a long punt forward was moved on to petržela and, with the shakhtar defence shrinking away in front of him, the 30-year-old finished past pyatov with a shot from the edge of the box that brushed off srna.
the pitmen had further reason to curse their luck when bolek stuck out a foot to repel alex teixeira's goal-bound back-heel, and the onslaught merely intensified in the second period. bolek saved from teixeira, václav procházka got in the way of ılsinho's strike, Čišovský did the same to bernard, and bolek denied douglas costa; it was relentless.
home substitute facundo ferreyra eventually had the ball in the net on 81 minutes yet was pegged back for offside. bolek then touched taras stepanenko's header onto the underside of the bar but – typical of shaktar's fortune – it refused to go in.
