Football | Champions League
Shakhtar Donetsk and Bayer Leverkusen shared the points in a scrappy Champions League goalless draw in Ukraine on Tuesday to edge the Germans towards a place in the knockout stages.
Germany Under-21 goalkeeper Bernd Leno played a major role in Bayer leaving Donetsk with a point after pulling off a string of impressive saves to frustrate the hosts.
The draw leaves Leverkusen second in Group A behind Manchester United, with Shakhtar third, but the game had stalemate written all over it from the start with chances few and far between.
Play often got bogged down in the middle of the park and Bayer's fancy footwork failed to find a way through the rugged Shakhtar defence.
Bayer, who had rested a string of first-team regulars for the weekend defeat to Bundesliga bottom club Eintracht Brunswick, pushed for an away win, but were a long way from repeating their remarkable 4-0 win in Germany in the previous fixture.
For Shakhtar it continued a dismal run against German opposition, as they have not beaten a Bundesliga side on home soil for 32 years when Eintracht Frankfurt were the victims in a Uefa Cup tie.
But at least they did what coach Mircea Lucescu demanded, and "put things right" after their unfortunate drubbing in Germany.
Shakhtar had the lion's share of possession and forced six first-half corners to Bayer's none, but it was the Germans who carved out the half's best chance after 24 minutes.
Burly Shakhtar defender Viacheslav Shavchuk upended Son Heung-Min outside the area and from the resultant free kick, Gonzalo Castro brought an acrobatic save from the Ukrainian 'keeper Andriy Piatov, diving smartly to his right to hold the ball cleanly.
Shortly afterwards, Bayer's Germany midfielder Sidney Sam broke through the Shakhtar defence but put his shot from the edge of the area tamely wide.
In reply, Shakhtar's Croatian captain Darijo Srna rattled the woodwork on the half hour, his mighty shot from far out on the right striking the far post and rebounding back into play.
Leverkusen came out of the blocks fighting at the start of the second half but for all their pressure, they failed to break the resolve of Piatov, who was equal to everything the Germans bombarded him with.
But in the end it was a satisfactory result for Bayer, whose coach Sami Hyypia had predicted the game would leave them "very close to qualifying for the knockout stages".
After the game, he beamed: "You play to win, but tonight a point is OK.
"Bernd played well, all in all, we fought well and had a few good opportunities to score. The second half was much better for us than the first."
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