Mentor Gornyakov admitted that Dynamo is the favorite in the championship race
Head coach Shakhtar Marino Pusic commented on the match of the 11th round UPLin which his team, playing in the minority for more than half an hour, missed out on victory over Dynamo in the last minutes (1:1).
“Of course, the sending off affected the course of events in the match, unfortunately. Our team played an incredible match – from the point of view of both the construction of attacks and the overall pattern of the game. To tell the truth, I was not able to fully see the episode with the deletion, so I won’t say anything for now – I need to additionally watch the video recording of this episode being repeated. However, as I already noted, this episode completely changed the course of events in the match, but I am completely satisfied with how my team performed. And I’m proud of my guys today – both how they performed with full strength, and after the removal, when we played 30 minutes in the minority, I’m completely satisfied with the pattern of the game and how the team converted my ideas.”
“Some may say that we got one point on the road and that this is a good result, but no, I don’t think this is a good result, because we should have got more and deserved more. Unfortunately, sometimes in football you don’t get what you deserve, so I’m happy with my team and we will continue to work.”
The specialist also answered a question about fatigue after the away match with Arsenal (0:1) in the Champions League and the lack of rotation.
“Have you seen the game? I think we did. We played great, really great. And I believe this will be my best answer to your question. Can a team play well if it is tired? And we played great against Arsenal too, I think. So no, we weren’t tired. We were fantastic. My players were fantastic. And so we completely dominated until the moment we received the red card.”
“Let me add one more thing. Your colleagues asked me about the further course of events in the championship race, and I will say that only 10 matches have been played, and another 20 games are ahead, so it is too early to say that the fate of the championship has been decided. Yes, Dynamo is the favorite in this race – both because the opponent has a six-point advantage, and because they are not so focused on performing in the European arena. Perhaps this is due to logistical difficulties, perhaps with something else, but they have fewer such worries. But I can assure you that my team will fight for the title to the last. Yes, now we are six points behind, but this will in no way affect our mood, we will catch up and overtake them as long as the championship continues.”
Let us remind you that in today’s meeting the Miners had the initiative from the first minutes, creating scoring chances from time to time. The guests managed to score immediately after the break – after a corner kick, Eguinaldo’s shot was saved by Georgiy Buschan, but Artem Bondarenko managed to send the ball into the net.
Soon after this, Shakhtar remained in the minority – Dmytro Kryskiv received a straight red for a flagrant foul on Christian Bilovar. Dynamo’s pressure bore fruit in the very end – fresh Alexander Karavaev equalized the score.
The miners missed the opportunity to halve the six-point gap from the Kiev team and remained in fourth place in the standings. On October 30, Pusic’s team will play against Zorya in the 1/8 finals of the Ukrainian Cup.
Source: Sportarena

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