A strike from Marlos on the stroke of half time was enough to fire Shakhtar Donetsk to a 1-0 victory over Rapid Vienna in the first leg of their Champions League qualifying match this evening.
The visitors came close to breaking the deadlock in the 14th minute when Oleksandr Gladkiy latched on to a through-ball in the box, but his effort was well saved by Jan Novota.
The Vienna keeper was in fine form as he made another solid stop to deny Shakhtar again minutes later when Yaroslav Rakitskiy fired a strike at goal, but the keeper showed good handling to keep it out.
The home side came into the game when Louis Schaub was afforded space and time on the edge of the box to fire a shot at goal, but Andriy Pyatov was equal to the effort.
Shakhtar continued to have the better of the opportunities as Rakitskiy was played in down the left, but his strike was denied by Novota.
The Ukrainian side took the lead on the stroke of half time after Pyatov denied Florian Kainz at the other end of the pitch. Rakitskiy raided down the left flank and put the ball into the middle for Marlos to beat one defender and fire the ball into the net.
In the second half, Rapid had the chance to draw as Schaub found space for a strike following a counter down the middle, but his effort failed to hit the target.
Vienna continued to threaten as Thanos Petsos lined up a strike from the edge of the box, but Pyatov was able to make the stop.
The home side kept pushing forward in the second half and Mario Pavelic should have hit the target when he rose highest in the area to head Steffen Hofmann's corner at goal, but his effort went wide.
Rapid pushed to get an equaliser in the dying minutes, but Shakhtar held out for the win to take a narrow advantage back to the Ukraine for the second leg next week.
Simon Sinclair
