(Football news) It appeared as though a scoreless first half would end in a draw, but in the fortyth minute, Sikan scored his third goal in Europe of the season by heading a header past Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

In the last moments of the game, Shakhtar appeared to have extended their lead after withstanding the onslaught from Barcelona in the second half when Newerton curled a wonderful strike into the far corner.

Shakhtar’s team remained resilient to secure a remarkable triumph despite the Brazilian’s effort being eventually disregarded due to an offside infringement. Third-place Shakhtar pulled within three points of leaders Group H Barcelona after their second victory of the group stage.

With a 2-1 triumph in their meeting on the third matchday, Barcelona would have felt optimistic about their chances of winning again in the rematch. The La Liga winners had the better of the early possession, but a resolute Shakhtar team seemed eager to exact revenge for their loss to them last month.

In the fifteenth minute, the team that was assigned as the hosts nearly took the lead when Mykola Matviyenko grabbed a long ball over the top and forced Ter Stegen to make a save. For the first forty-five minutes, Barcelona was unable to get above first gear, despite Raphinha’s erroneous long-range attempt.

Marino Pusic’s team capitalized on the visitors’ inability to get going, scoring a skillfully constructed goal in the closing seconds of the first half.

Georgiy Sudakov saw his team have a brief period of control before sensibly switching the ball to Giorgi Gocholeishvili, who lofted a ball into the box, where Sikan headed it home with accuracy.

After the interval, Gocholeishvili came dangerously close to adding his name to the scoresheet, but he was unable to get past Ter Stegen’s unwavering resolve. Before the hour had passed, the Barcelona goalkeeper was called upon once more, this time to deny Sikan his second goal of the game.

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