Shakhtar Donetsk have 4 points from their first 3 Champions League games, and that is the main reason Arda Turan's side look credible again in Europe. They have done it with a balanced 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss, plus 4 goals scored and 3 conceded. The league-phase start is not the work of a team hanging on, it is the start of a side that can still compete.
The results that changed the tone
The opening draw in Eindhoven set the tone. Shakhtar then beat AEK 3-1 after coming from behind in their second game, which showed more than resistance. It showed they can recover inside a match and still control the outcome.
Their narrow loss to Inter in Milan backed that up. Carlos Augusto scored in the 77th minute, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan providing the assist, and Shakhtar still left with a performance that was short on points but not on evidence. A Bola described it as a serious warning for Sporting, because the Donetsk emblem played toe to toe with the Italian champions at the Giuseppe Meazza.
Why this feels different from a token return
The broader context matters too. Shakhtar won the championship again in 2025/26, and A Bola also said Arda Turan rebuilt the Donetsk emblem by recovering the league title and reaching the Conference League semi-finals. That is the backdrop to this Champions League return, a team that has already put together another domestic title and now looks comfortable enough in Europe to take points off opponents rather than merely survive.
Seventeenth place in the league phase is still a work in progress, but it puts Shakhtar in the mix rather than out of sight. Their next European matches will decide whether the start becomes a proper push into the knockout discussion, but the first three games already say they belong in the competition.
Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
