On Thursday, 10 September 2026, Donetsk's Shakhtar will open the main round (league phase) of the UEFA Champions League 2026/27 season. The Ukrainian club's first opponent will be the reigning Dutch champions, PSV Eindhoven. The match will take place at the Philips Stadium in Eindhoven, with kick-off at 19:45 Kyiv time. The main referee for the encounter is Turkish official Hamit Umut Meler. The photo shows a moment from the pre-match ceremony, when the players and child mascots lined up on the pitch under the Ukrainian flag.

Team form ahead of the European season opener

Both teams have arrived at the first match of the new Champions League campaign in excellent form. PSV won away 3:1 against Viktor Tsygankov's Ajax in the fifth round of the Eredivisie. The Eindhoven side conceded first, but equalised before the break and scored twice in stoppage time of the second half. After five rounds of the Dutch championship, PSV have 13 points and sit second in the table. AZ lead with 15 points.

Shakhtar, for their part, beat Karpaty 2:1 away in the fifth round of the Ukrainian Premier League. After five rounds of the Ukrainian championship, the Miners have 12 points and share top spot in the table with Polissya. Thus, both teams approach their European opener with winning streaks in their domestic leagues, adding intrigue to the upcoming clash.

Head-to-head history: the nightmare ending of 2024/25

The upcoming meeting will be only the second in the history of PSV and Shakhtar's European encounters. The first match took place very recently — in the 2024/25 season the teams met in the Champions League league phase, also in Eindhoven. Shakhtar controlled the game for a long time and were leading 2:0 until the 86th minute. However, the ending of the match became a true nightmare for the Ukrainian club: PSV scored in the 87th minute and then netted twice more in stoppage time. In the end, the Dutch side staged an incredible comeback and snatched a 3:2 victory. This result will surely be in the memory of the Miners' players and coaching staff ahead of the rematch at the Philips Stadium.

PSV vs Ukrainian clubs: overall statistics

In total, PSV have faced Ukrainian teams 15 times in European competitions. The Ukrainian representatives have won six times, drawn three times and lost six times. The goal difference in these encounters favours the Ukrainian clubs, 19:17. Besides Shakhtar, Kyiv's Dynamo, Dnipro, Metalist and Odesa's Chornomorets have played against PSV in different years. Thus, the head-to-head statistics between the Dutch side and Ukrainian football are overall fairly balanced, with a slight edge to the guests from Ukraine.

Broadcast in Ukraine and pre-match programme

In Ukraine, the match will be available live on the MEGOGO media service. Kick-off is at 19:45 Kyiv time, and the pre-match studio starts at 18:30. The broadcast will be shown on the pop-up channel "MEGOGO Football 1" as well as in the "Sport" section. To watch the match, a "Sport" subscription or any tariff from the "MEGOPACK" line is required: "Maximum", N+S or Y. No free broadcast of the match is scheduled on the free-to-air TV channels. Thus, fans who want to support Shakhtar in the first match of the new Champions League season will be able to do so exclusively through the paid media service.