The coach is satisfied with the character and actions of his players
Head coach Shakhtar Marino Pusic summed up the results of the meeting with Arsenal (0:1) in the third round of the group stage of the Champions League.
“I saw character, and also a great desire to win and achieve results. I also told my players that I was very proud of them. It’s not easy to play against such an incredible team – in my opinion, very strong, perhaps one of the best in Europe. And, playing away, we realized that the opponent would be very powerful in the first half, with a lot of movement and individual qualities, but we also defended quite well and had our moments.”
“We had the opportunity to equalize at the end. I always say that it is better to lose with your philosophy than to lose without it. So we lost, we have to congratulate the opponent, because, again, this is an incredible team. And Riznyk also played great, but, in my opinion, all my players deserve praise for the way we played, showed ourselves and worked.”
“In the UPL we are not forced to defend low – in fact we never defend low. So it’s a huge challenge when you’re playing in the Champions League against opponents of this quality and you’re going to be pushed back to defend in a low block. We had a proper strategy, it worked quite well, the guys executed it very well. We are a team that in our championship mostly has about 70-75 percent possession of the ball. And it’s not easy to mentally switch to the opposite game.”
“Raya made a fantastic save. To be honest, I thought there would be a goal because the shot was great too, but of course he is a highly skilled goalkeeper and you need to get lucky on the ball, maybe have it bounce and surprise him, something like that. At that moment I was really hopeful, thinking: this is it, this is the goal. But…”
“Given the way we played in the second half, in my opinion, we definitely deserved a goal. We weren’t always lucky or skilled enough to create even more chances, but there were a number of moments. I would say it was very close and we were chasing that goal for the rest of the game. This is what I demanded from my team and how I made substitutions: I brought all our attacking forces into the game. I couldn’t replace Riznyk because we need a goalkeeper, but I would replace him too to score a goal.”
“I try to explain to people that it is not easy to create many chances at Champions League level, it is very difficult because you are playing against great opponents. We were up against Atalanta, the winner of the Europa League, and even then we had chances – with the score 2:0, we missed a 100% chance to win back.”
“We knew that there are certain opponents in the Champions League against which you have a real chance of getting a result, and there are others where you think: it will be very difficult. Arsenal is one of them. Atalanta, perhaps too. “I’m a little sorry about the first match, which we played in difficult conditions: there was heavy rain during the match with Bologna, where we deserved to win.”
Shakhtar has “0” in the “goals scored” column after three group stage matches. Pusic’s team is in 29th place with one point.
In the next round of the Champions League, Shakhtar will play Young Boys. The meeting will take place on November 6.
Source: Sportarena
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