All three goalscorers in the game were Brazilians; lone striker Luiz Adriano opened the scoring for Shakhtar midway through the first half, before Naldo equalised from a free kick ten minutes later.
The second half was goalless and the match went to extra time; after only seven minutes, Jádson scored for Shakhtar to secure the club's first major European trophy.
In the second game, Shakhtar hosted Barcelona and the two sides were set to share the points at 1–1 until Lionel Messi scored in the fourth minute of stoppage time in the second half and the Catalan giants won 2–1.
Two successive 1–0 defeats to Sporting CP, home and away, saw Shakhtar's hopes of progressing to the knockout rounds of the Champions League dashed.
Shakhtar, however, were well positioned to claim third place, above Basel, and secure passage to the UEFA Cup knockout rounds if they took points from their last two games in the group stage.
With the first leg at the RSK Olimpiyskyi Stadium, Shakhtar were frustrated by their inability to turn their dominance over Tottenham into goals, until substitute Yevhen Seleznyov scored on his first touch, with a header in the 79th minute.
Taking with them a 2–0 aggregate lead to London, Shakhtar were favoured to progress to the Round of 16, but a goal from Tottenham's Giovani dos Santos in the 55th minute gave the English side a glimmer of hope.
In the 70th minute, 2004–05 UEFA Cup winners CSKA were left stunned when goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev, under pressure from Oleksandr Kucher, could only clear a looping cross from Fernandinho just a few meters ahead of him, where Luiz Adriano was perfectly positioned to hit it first time and score.
Dynamo's Olexandr Aliyev had a chance to give the Kyiv side the lead again in the 78th minute, but Shakhtar goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov saved well and the game ended 1–1.
Shakhtar took their crucial away goal to Donetsk and things were looking very rosy when Jadson scored in the 17th minute in the return leg to put the aggregate scoreline at 2–1.
With the aggregate at 2–2 and heading for extra time and potentially a penalty shootout, a moment of brilliance in the 89th minute from Ilsinho sent Shakhtar to Istanbul.
Werder finished the 2007–08 Bundesliga in second place and received a spot in the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League group stage as a result.
The Champions League campaign got off to a poor start for Werder when the first tie of the round against heavy underdog Cypriot side Anorthosis ended in a 0–0 draw in Bremen.
Hugo Almeida rescued a point for Werder in the 87th minute, when he scored after a cross from Mesut Özil was helped on by Duško Tošić.
Panathinaikos held on to their 1–0 lead against Anorthosis and after both games had finished, Werder secured third place and a spot in the UEFA Cup knockout rounds.
Heading to the San Siro with the aggregate scoreline all even, Milan jumped ahead in the first half with two goals from Andrea Pirlo and Alexandre Pato respectively.
It looked as though the job was done for the Bremen club when they had a 3–0 lead over Udinese after just 69 minutes at the Weserstadion, through two goals from Diego and a solitary strike from Almeida.
Gökhan Inler opened the scoring for the hosts with a fantastic 30-metre goal that left Werder keeper Tim Wiese with no chance of saving.
With animosity running high between the two clubs and their respective supporters, this promised to be a fascinating clash for German football fans.
Taking a 1–0 lead with them to the HSH Nordbank Arena, Hamburg were confident of progressing to the Istanbul final, while it looked as though Werder would fail in the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup for the fourth time.