By the end of the night, it was a full-blown party. Shakhtar Donetsk ultras, sporting the club’s orange-and-black colours, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the wider Ukrainian diaspora, whether they were old or young, male or female, friends or family. The nation’s blue-and-yellow flag, the symbol of a long-fought battle beyond these shores, waved highest, conspicuous at every turn. Rarely, you suspect, had sections L8-11 in the lower tier of the Matthew Harding Stand felt quite so uplifting. And there was no doubt: this was the place to be if you were a Ukrainian in London .

All of them were simply looking for a good time. And they got one. Frankly, who can begrudge any of them that?

In and amongst it all on Wednesday night, what was most striking was the visceral sense of human emotion and, with it, the power of sport: the fostering of something greater. Sure, the victory on the field of play – a 3-1 triumph over AEK Athens – was the icing on the cake, triggering the raucous grand finale to the main event. But it was less about the result, more about the very authentic community it garnered. Some fans, whisper it quietly, even sneaked in pints onto the terraces, no doubt keen to guinea-pig Andy Burnham’s grand plan for beer in the stands. In that respect, this was an excellent endorsement.

And the outpouring of patriotism on minute 90, as those present sang the “Shche ne vmerla Ukraina” national anthem, stimulated the soul. It has now been four-and-a-half years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Shakhtar, Ukraine’s biggest football club alongside Dynamo Kyiv, have not played at the Donbas Arena since May 2014, when the Russian-backed annexation of the region began. Their stadium now stands derelict, falling apart at the seams.

Yet in the dozen years since, Shakhtar have continued bravely on, hosting “home” games in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Lviv and Kharkiv and Poland, Slovenia and Germany for European games. Now, with 265,000 Ukrainians taking refuge in London, they have moved even further west as Stamford Bridge hosts all their Champions League home games this season.

“It is the most difficult thing: we don’t have a home,” Darijo Srna, Shakhtar’s former captain and current director of football, tells me. “For more than 12 years, our fans have not been able to attend a home match in Donetsk. For someone in football, that is very difficult to understand.

“Your city, your stadium, your team — all of that is part of your life. But our fans have never abandoned us. They travel with us all over Europe. They come to matches, they sing, they support the team. I am very proud of them.”

On one hand, Chelsea ’s home ground, pipping other options in the capital such as Brentford and Fulham, makes total sense. The Blues are without European football this season and west London is home to one of Ukraine’s largest communities in the UK. Several children in the stands on Wednesday were draped in Ukrainian flags with ‘St Mary’s Ukrainian School, Holland Park’ embroidered on them, for example. And with a capacity of 40,000, it allows Shakhtar to take as much revenue as possible: 29,144 were in attendance last night.