The miners managed to beat Barcelona thanks to Sican’s goal
Donetsk mentor Shakhtar Marino Pusic commented on the minimal victory over Barcelona (1:0) in the fourth round of the group stage Champions League. The coach emphasized that his players fully implemented the game plan.
“How did we do this? As I already said, if you go out to play, you have to prove yourself, fight. This is the attitude I want to see in my team from the very beginning. This is exactly what I demand from them. Secondly, you need to believe in a good ending, because everything starts in our heads. We must believe and act.”
“Of course, we also had a game plan. We analyzed our previous meeting, as well as the matches that Barcelona played between our two matches. Made several major changes. The players did a phenomenal job. I must say that Barcelona had the ball longer, but we could have scored even more without conceding at all. A perfect performance from my team.”
“We are not thinking about the next stage. To be honest, all my thoughts are now focused on the next game, which will take place in the Ukrainian championship and will be quite difficult.”
“Injuries to Stepanenko and Sican? Unfortunately, they had to leave the game earlier than I expected. I think they are both strong guys, real fighters. We’ll see how serious it is, but I expect them to be back very soon.”
“Of course I’m very happy, but I’m very proud of my players and all the people at the club who have worked hard to help me achieve what we have achieved today.
“Kryskiv and Sudakov? I was never surprised by their talent, because I knew about this talent. I saw them play against Feyenoord when I worked there, so I knew what kind of players they were. At the same time, every young footballer must develop in order to reach the next level, must always demand this from themselves. And the guys showed that they are capable of reaching the next level. I am very proud of them, as well as the whole team. This is a team achievement. It is the team that makes individual players better, not the other way around. Of course they performed fantastically, but so did the whole team.”
“We have to take into account what kind of opponent we played against. First of all, we didn’t want to play defense, but if your opponent is that strong, he just forces you to do it. We knew this could happen, so we made a plan accordingly. We covered important space, created opportunities for counterattacks, and had good transitions. I think it’s an amazing achievement for my team to not concede a single goal. We tried to play, we wanted to play, to build attacks, but it is not always possible to maintain possession for a long period when we have to defend against such a strong opponent. But the way we came out of defense, how we organized attacks, created danger, was again fantastic.”
“I think we could have scored more than one goal. Therefore, the reason for this was the strength of the opponent, who sometimes forced me to sit deeper than I would like. However, you should still dominate. For me, this also manifests itself not only in possession of the ball, but also in moments without the ball. And if you dominate at this level, then there is a big chance to win, like we did. In my opinion, when you see the big picture, you realize that we deserve it.”
“My players deserve the best compliments. I can come up with something, I can have a plan, but they need to execute it on the pitch – and they were fantastic, so I want to give them credit. As I already said, it is not easy to play against Barcelona. They are a very strong team, fantastic on the ball and have incredible quality in all aspects. And you have to be very brave to decide to do what you want. We want to play, to have the ball, and we tried to do that as much as we had the opportunity. And this is what I am most proud of – not only the perfect organization and work in defense, but also the fact that at every opportunity we tried to develop the attack, retain the ball, create chances. As I already said, if you watch the game, we could have had another goal, but whether it was offside, I don’t know. We deserve this victory.”
“We need to stay calm and think gradually, go game by game. This is a very strong group, two big matches are still ahead. And, of course, anything is possible. But, to be honest, I don’t think about it at all this evening. I noticed that I was already thinking about the next game in the Ukrainian championship when I came here. So, if we achieve this, it will be fantastic, if not, then the European spring is also a very good result for the club under such conditions.”
Shakhtar, with six points after four rounds, is in third place in Group H. In the next round, the Miners will host Antwerp, the match will take place on November 28.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
