Shakhtar Donetsk triumph in last UEFA Cup final

MOSCOW, May 21 (RIA Novosti) - Teams from former Soviet republics continued their impressive record in the UEFA Cup on Wednesday evening as Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk beat Germany's Werder Bremen to lift the trophy.

The last UEFA Cup final before the competition is revamped next season as the Europa League burst into life in the 25th minute, when a mistake in the Bremen defense let Luiz Adriano through to put the east Ukrainian club ahead, sending the orange half of Istanbul's Sukru Saracoglu Stadium into raptures.

However, ten minutes later, Andriy Pyatov in the Donetsk goal failed to deal with a powerful Naldo free-kick and the Germans were level.

The second-half saw both teams waste a number of chances, but there were no further goals and the final went into extra-time.

Donetsk always looked more likely to score, and Brazilian Jadson sealed matters with a strike seven minutes into extra-time, his shot evading the clutches of Tim Wiese in the Bremen goal.

"This first trophy is fantastic," Shakhtar's Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu told journalists after the match. "There is a great feeling of satisfaction and I am extremely happy. But we want other things. We want to do something in the Champions League."

Shakhtar's victory means that Russian and Ukrainian sides have won three out of the last five UEFA Cups, with Zenit St. Petersburg triumphing in 2008 and CSKA Moscow winning the trophy in 2005. However, no eastern European team has yet made the breakthrough in the Champions League, Europe's most prestigious club competition. This is something Lucescu intends to rectify.

"My aim is to continue to build this team," he said. "The Champions League will be the aim for eastern European countries. We have played at a high level. Until now we have had a problem with the level of our championship. Now I think eastern European countries have the chance to win the Champions League and we will try to do it."