Online Reporter
BENFICA goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin went from surviving a bloody war to becoming the hero that knocked Real Madrid down and stunned the entire world in the Champions League.
Trubin, 24, kept the Lisbon giants in Europe with a clinical 98th minute header that condemned Real to a 4-2 loss on Wednesday in Da Luz.
Jose Mourinho‘s side needed that fourth goal against his former club to finish 24th in the table and go into the Champions League play-offs. So, in a last throw of the dice, keeper Trubin went up to Los Blancos’ box for a last minute set piece.
The Ukraine international met a pinpoint cross from Fredrik Aursnes and fired a header past Thibaut Courtois — the man he has been compared to since the start of the decade — to become only the fifth keeper to score in the Champions League.
The shot-stopper’s heroics will always live in infamy as not only did he keep Benfica dreams alive, he also knocked Real out of the top eight, meaning they must also go through the play-offs.
Trubin has come a long way and probably wouldn’t imagine last night’s scenes back in 2014 when he was forced to abandon his home of Donetsk to move to Kiev at the age of 13 when he was part of Shakhtar Donetsk’s academy.
That was after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea that led to paramilitaries — backed by Russian president Vladimir Putin — seizing territory in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region before an illegitimate referendum.
Trubin told Goal back in 2022: “I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t like Donetsk to stay part of Ukraine. Donetsk is Ukraine, and it can only flourish as a Ukrainian city. It was a magnificent prosperous town, the city of roses.
“I just want this war to be over as soon as possible, so that things can be as they were.
“How could anyone support this aggression, when peaceful people are dying?
“Such a situation helped me to grow mentally faster. Maybe that is the reason why my progress was quite fast.”
Trubin turned into a refugee in his own country once more in 2022 when he had to escape to Lutsk with his mother and sister following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine that sparked their ongoing war.
That left the Ukrainian absolutely heartbroken and of course took a major toll on his career while still playing with Shakhtar.
Trubin added: “We didn’t think it could really happen. Nobody expected Russia to be so barbaric and cruel. This really is a nightmare.
