Taras Stepanenko is delighted Shakhtar shut the doubters down by sealing a point against Celtic and giving themselves a fighting chance of Champions League progress.
The worst case scenario for the Ukrainians is now a third-place finish and Europa League football in the New Year after Mykhailo Mudryk's stunner cancelled out Giorgos Giakoumakis ' opener. They should have won it after Danylo Sikan missed a sitter but it was ultimately a hard-fought draw at Parkhead against Ange Postecoglou' s team who had them clinging on in the early stages.
Stepanenko knows his team were in a game and two draws with Celtic have helped their cause as they now face Leipzig on matchday six knowing a win will send them through. And the Ukraine veteran, who has more than 70 caps for his country, reckons his side have surprised a lot of people who had written them off before a ball was kicked.
He pointed out: "When the draw was made, no one thought we would be able to play like this and everyone thought we would go out. But we deserved the draw with Celtic and now we have an opportunity to qualify next week. We have a strong, young team as you saw against the Scots and if we play like that next week, we can win.
"Look, it was a very difficult match in Glasgow. Celtic played well in attack and pressed us, it was very hard for us. However, we waited for our chance and scored a goal.
"We also had a great chance to score the second goal, but that's football. We achieved a good result, now we will have European football next year too. Of course, the chance we missed was a big one, but let's not forget, Celtic had chances too. A draw in Glasgow was a really good result for us."
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