KEEPING UP THE FIGHT

Shakhtar battling on against all the odds

- MARK MCCADDEN

THIS is no ordinary football match.

This is a former Barcelona player, capped 100 times by Turkey, talking about missiles and drones, and sending a message to Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Recep Erdogan and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

It's a team travelling 16 hours, first by coach from Kiev to Chisinau in Moldova, nearly 500km away, and then by plane to Dublin.

And when they get to Dublin, the final leg of their journey to Tallaght Stadium for a short training session is delayed by an accident on the M50.

There is more riding on this one for Shakhtar Donetsk than just three Europa Conference League points.

"It's a really very important game for fans from Donbass and Ukraine, and we really need to win this game," says midfielder Dmytro Kryskiv, who hails from battle-scarred Kharkiv.

His manager, Arda Turan (above), who took charge last May, played 55 times for Barcelona during the Lionel Messi era.