24 February 202224 February 2022.From the section European Football
As Ukraine came under attack from Russia on Thursday, football continued across the continent with clubs, players and fans showing their support for the Eastern European country.
Ukraine international Ruslan Malinovskyi scored twice in Atalanta’s 3-0 win at Olympiakos and revealed a T-shirt with the message “No War in Ukraine”.
Zenit St Petersburg were the only Russian club playing on Thursday, against Real Betis in Seville, and home supporters held up a Ukrainian flag inside the stadium.
Zenit suffered a 3-2 defeat on aggregate after having an injury-time goal disallowed by VAR, which would have taken the tie to extra time. Meanwhile, the Russian side had defender Yaroslav Rakitskiy, capped 54 times by Ukraine, on the bench.
Ukraine’s Manchester City defender Oleksandr Zinchenko was not in action but he joined a vigil in the centre of Manchester to show his support for his country.
Before their Europa League meeting at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, Barcelona and Napoli players stood together behind a large banner which read “Stop War”.
Fans of Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb held a banner which read “Support to the people of Ukraine” in their 1-0 home win over Sevilla.
Fans of Norwegian club Bodo/Glimt held up pictures of the Ukraine flag in their match against Celtic to show their solidarity with those who have been affected.
Slavia Prague players wore Ukraine T-shirts before their meeting with Turkish club Fenerbahce in the Europa Conference League, with the tops bearing the message “We Stand with Ukraine”.
Slavia also made Ukraine international defender Taras Kacharaba captain for the evening.
