Shakhtar's odyssey to Madrid due to the war in Ukraine: "We arrived more tired than the rival"

Normally, European clubs use charter flights to get around.

They arrive at the nearest airport, board, spend a few hours in comfortable seats and get off at the destination city without major setbacks.

But for

everything is different.

The club was based in

, in the heart of the

region , and in

moved to

due to the bombings that were taking place in eastern Ukraine.

And since February, with the

, they moved their belongings to

(Leopolis), in the west of the country.

From there they left this Monday morning on an eternal odyssey on their way to

, where on Wednesday at

they will face Real at the

.

As the Ukrainian airspace is closed,

had to

, on a trip similar to the one they made to play the first match of the

group stage against

.

The Spanish capital, yes, is much further away than the German city.

Charter from Rzeszow

The expedition of the first team and the youth squad (who will face their Madrid counterpart on Wednesday at two in the afternoon in

) left the north of Ukraine and traveled the

by bus that separate

from the Polish city of

, the closest to the border with an operating airport.

Once they passed customs, with their corresponding delay, and after more than four hours by road, they arrived at the Rzeszów military airport, where they took a charter flight that takes another

.

They land in Barajas at

, almost ten hours after leaving Lviv, and on Tuesday afternoon they will train at the Bernabéu.

"

.

We have a lot of games, especially this month, and the duration of our trips is much longer than the others.

a lot and we arrive more tired than the rival, "says Jovicevic in a conversation with EL MUNDO.

The

for Shakhtar because of the war.

The Ukrainian team plays its matches in the First Division of its country in the cities of

, all to the west of the territory and far, for the moment, from the war.

But in the Champions League they play their home games in

, the capital of

, more than 400 kilometers and

.

Madrid will travel there next week, which curiously will take less time to get from Barajas airport to Warsaw than Shakhtar from Lviv.

Even so, the tiredness of the trips seems to have not yet made a dent in the Ukrainian squad, which will arrive at the Bernabéu

.

He has won four and drawn one in the five games played in the Premier of his country and in the Champions League he is being one of the great surprises of the edition.

On Matchday 1, they dazzled the continent by

4-1 at home and drawing against Celtic in Warsaw in their second game.

Now he returns to Madrid, where

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