Jovicic: At Real Madrid there will be a brave Shakhtar who will fight for the points

The head coach of the Donetsk club shared his expectations from the Champions League group stage match.

In the match against Real Madrid, all players will be Ukrainians. We need to show that we are fighting for each other and represent the Ukrainian people. This was said at a press conference by the head coach of the Donetsk team, Igor Jovicevich. According to the Croatian specialist, the team will do everything to cheer up all the Ukrainians who are suffering from the aggression of the Kremlin troops.

“Ukraine? We will win. It is impossible to destroy us, our spirit, unity. empathy. Many of my football players have families in Ukraine, and this affects us, but will not destroy our morale. We will fight the same way the Armed Forces fought for us and for our freedom. This is the least we can show our respect is to fight tomorrow’s game from the first to the last minute.

Every team that competes at the highest level has a top goalkeeper. And if you take last season, it will be difficult for Real Madrid to win the Champions League without Thibaut Courtois. This is the highest level. Just as important as Anatoliy Trubin for us, to achieve the loftiest goals that Shakhtar has set for itself. And the game he showed at the Santiago Bernabeu was his hallmark at the European level. But this is not the first time. Perhaps the Bernabéu only now sees him in this light, but we often see Trubin play like this. His position and status in the national team is also proof of his talent. I am sure he will have a great career. He is very important not only in the responsible position he occupies. Of course, there are matches when the boy is less, but in general he is the leader. Just like Courtois.

We have to go on the field tomorrow and show that we fight for each other and represent the Ukrainian people. Ukrainians must see that we are fighting and giving all our strength to the field. Because it is our responsibility. Tactically, we consider the game: we believe we can improve on the last meeting at the Santiago Bernabeu and show our best.

Tomorrow everyone will be Ukrainians. And Taylor, and me, and Lassina Traore, and Jurasek. All are Ukrainians tomorrow. And there will be 40 million more Ukrainians. And another 10 million abroad.

We are committed to development. We got into a certain situation, and it motivates us to improve our game and show that we have a good young team. We are building a foundation for the future, but we are living in a difficult time for Ukraine. We play home league matches in Lviv, we host Champions League games here, and we have to travel a lot for European cup matches. We are constantly on the road and constantly moving, of course, fatigue is felt against this background. We have almost no school due to constant travel. Our preparation is fundamentally different from the usual preparation of other teams for Champions League matches. But we have a strong mentality, we are constantly focused and we want to show the whole world that we are young and a good team. This situation is not forever, everything has to end. I don’t just want to say this in an interview and train, I want to give you a signal to help us end this war! We have to end this war together! You see what is happening now, and it is terrible. It’s not just about football, football can show what happened because football is driven by emotions. Today we are not talking about football, but about life in general. You want to be free, you want to sleep peacefully, and I also want to sleep without a bomb. Help us, it’s important! Such is life!

There are situations where there is no need to talk. We have a look at the morning shelling. You just look men in the eyes and support them. We are all together and fully understand the situation that occurred. But we are stronger together. Everyone has a family, everyone is worried about him, but we also have to overcome this obstacle. We are not giving up. In the evening we will all be together for training, because we still have to focus on tomorrow’s match. We must play it, and play at a level that makes all of Ukraine proud of us. And the least they will see tomorrow is a brave miner who will fight for points.

We have a big day ahead of us, a very important match. The last match showed that we can play good football with the Champions League winners, the best team in Europe. We have 90 minutes of the second match ahead of us, and anything can happen. We have to show the highest level tomorrow, having made some adjustments after the last game. We must be bolder, more furious in the attack. We need to fix some problems in the middle of the field, where it is necessary to establish a good movement of the ball. Because we know – Real Madrid are very, very dangerous in advancing the ball. In general, we should be ourselves. We have to play the way we play in the league, as we played in the first game against Real Madrid, especially in the second half, when we created two or three chances at the Bernabéu and we saw what we could do. We have to be competent tomorrow, and I hope it will be a good game for us,” Shakhtar’s official website quoted Jovicevich as saying.

It will be remembered that the match in the fourth round of the group stage of the Champions League Shakhtar – Real Madrid will be held today, October 11, in Warsaw. The starting whistle for the match will sound at 22:00 Kyiv time.

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