Antonio Rudiger’s last minute equaliser snatches a draw for Madrid after Oleksandr Zubkov’s opener

A bloodied Antonio Rudiger earned Real Madrid a point against Shakhtar Dontesk leaving the Ukrainians seconds short of a famous win over the European Champions.

Blood was pouring from Rudiger’s face as he felt the full force of Shakhtar keeper Anatolii Trubin in the 95th minute of the game. Just before the impact he had got his head to Toni Kroos’ cross and put Real Madrid back on terms with their last attack of the game. The 1-1 leaves Madrid top with 10 points and Shakhtar third a point behind second-placed RB Leipzig.

Until Madrid’s last attack Shakhtar had been on the verge of taking a huge step towards qualification to the knockout stage.

Oleksandr Zubkov’s 46th minute header gave Shakhtar Donetsk the lead over Real Madrid

Antonio Rudiger clashed heads with Anatolii Trubin in the process of netting his equaliser

Rudiger was absolutely clattered in the challenge but managed to divert the header 

Los Blancos conceded for just the first time in the Champions League so far this season

Their coach – a former Real Madrid youth team player – Igor Jovicevic, had spoken at length in the build up to the game about how his players had been devastated by events in their home country this week. 

He described an almost impossible training session on the eve of this match because players’ heads were elsewhere, fraught with worry for relatives who had been left ‘hiding in basements’ from Russia’s bombardment back home.

But he was adamant that this game should go ahead because football was a chance to offer some form of positive distraction to a terrorized population. His players did not come up short.

The electric Mykhailo Mudryk was their biggest threat in the first half. 

But at the restart they took a deserved lead when Bogdan Mykhaylichenko crossed from the left and with Ferland Mendy rooted to the spot at the back post, Oleksandr Zubkov rose to head past Andriy Lunin just inside his near post.

Carlo Ancelotti’s reaction was to immediately tell both Vinicius and Luka Modric to prepare to come on. 

Eden Hazard, sensing perhaps that his involvement was about to come to an end misplaced his second pass in the space of a few minutes and on 56 minutes he was off and Aurelien Tchouameni went with him.

The changes did not alter the pattern of play and a sweeping move down the left ended with Burkino Faso-born Lassina Traore clean through on goal.

 Lunin got down well to scramble the ball away from him but he then spilled it back to the forward who sent his shot on to the crossbar.

Madrid were closer to conceding a second than to getting back in the game and Ancelotti turned to his substitutes again with David Alaba, Marco Asensio and Eduardo Camavinga all coming on.

Again the change just provoked more home team chances with the outstanding Zubkov turning away from Kroos only for Alaba to block his shot. The same player also had a long shot pushed away by Lunin.

Real had to call on several of their stars to see out the win, including midfielder Luka Modric

Madrid came close on 90 minutes but Rudiger’s header was pushed wide by Trubin and it seemed Shakhtar would hold on but Rudiger got the equalizer just as the home team’s bench prepared to celebrate a win.

The Ukrainian side play at Celtic Park next before their final game against RB Leipzig who they beat 4-1 away from home. 

Reaching the Champions League last 16 still looks in their grasp despite this late setback.

Bloodied but unbroken, Rudiger and the Spanish side managed to walk away with a point

Carlo Ancelotti’s side still made the next round of the competition with two games to play