Morsy ran onto a fine Wes Burns lay-off to drill the ball into the bottom corner from the edge of the ‘D’ in the 38th minute.
That was enough to beat the Ukrainian champions at the Sportzentrum Landskron in Villach, Austria, this match coming at the end of a week-long training camp for Kieran McKenna’s men.
Shakhtar, who had already played five friendlies leading into this game, understandably looked the sharper in the opening exchanges. They had the ball in the net with less than four minutes played when a sweeping move up the left ended with Lassina Traore tapping home from close-range. Thankfully, the offside flag was up.
Ipswich players appeared to find a second wind after a difficult start and gradually started to put the opposition on the back foot.
In the 15th minute, Morsy won the ball high up the field with typical aggression, drove into space before slipping a pass into the path of George Hirst down the left side of the box. It almost led to a trademark Town goal as the striker cut the ball back into the area and Conor Chaplin’s first-time effort deflected behind off the back of a defender.
There was a let-off for the Blues in the 25th minute when Leif Davis left a headed back pass to Christian Walton well short. Oleksandr Zubkov nipped in, lobbed Town’s exposed keeper only to see the effort come back off the face of the crossbar.
In general, however, Ipswich were looking the more dangerous side and they got their rewards when breaking the deadlock.
