Shakhtar had no difficulties in the match of the 7th round of the UPL against Obolon (4:0)
Head coach Shakhtar Marino Pusic commented on his team’s victory over Obolon (4:0) in the match of the 7th round UPL.
“We didn’t play the first half as intensely as I would have liked, but I have to say that we have difficult logistics. We did have a lot of travelling this week because of the Champions League match, but that still can’t justify such intensity in our game. And although we didn’t play the first half as intensely, I would like to pay a lot of compliments to my team for the reaction we showed after the break and for the style in which we played the second half, keeping the tempo high and playing attacking football.”
“And I would also like to add that when we return from a Champions League match or any other European tournament, a victory on the domestic stage is always very important. Today we were completely focused on our opponent, on winning against this opponent. And this focus on the result converted into our success, which I am certainly very happy about.”
“You shouldn’t compare domestic championship matches with European tournament games, because a competition like the Champions League brings together the strongest teams, the best players, and the overall atmosphere contributes to an extremely high level of confrontation. And if we analyze our match with Bologna specifically, we played away against a difficult opponent, managed to keep a clean sheet, and I think that in a match of this level, this is quite a significant achievement. And a very important lesson that I was able to learn while playing in the Champions League: in a European Cup match, you will not get as many opportunities in the attacking phase as in a match of the national championship, perhaps there will be five or six moments, but usually no more. And it is in these five or six moments that you must be extremely precise and cool in implementing them.”
“You might be able to convert all the chances and then it would be a win of an incredible level, but usually we work in the direction of transferring our goals and ideas that are already integrated at the level of the national championship to the level of the Champions League. However, I am inclined to believe that sometimes a win even with a small number of goals scored at such a high level of the Champions League can be a completely satisfactory and acceptable result.”
“Logistics really takes a lot of our energy, and now in a competition of such a high level as the Champions League, we are the only team that has to face such challenges related to travel and a difficult situation for obvious reasons. Of course, this also applies to other Ukrainian teams. Each time we spend about 20 hours just on the road, which, of course, affects both our attacking qualities and our overall freshness in the game. And that is why I would like to once again note how proud I am of my team – how they give it their all on the field, how the players really give their all in every match. And for this, I do not hesitate to reward them with well-deserved compliments every time.”
After the game with Obolon, Shakhtar now has 12 points, moving up to 4th place in the UPL standings.
In the next round, Shakhtar will play Veres away on September 27.
Source: Sportarena
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