According to the coach, Gornyakov is expecting a “big match”
Shakhtar’s mentor Marino Pusic held a pre-match press conference on the eve of the confrontation with PSV in the fifth round of the Champions League group stage.
“How will we stop PSV? Attacking him, as Johan Cruyff said. This is the best strategy.”
“Of course, if the opponent plays better, has more possession or pushes us back, then we will have to defend. It’s not my style, but even if it happens, you have to be organized. This is a challenge for us, because now in the domestic championship we are a team that always takes the initiative 100 percent, scores more goals, creates more opportunities and spends more time in the other half of the field. And when you play against such an opponent in the Champions League, you know that sometimes you have to be in your own half too.”
“And I must say that we show in big matches that we are capable of this. This is not our style, but if necessary, we should play like this. But the best way to defend, as I already said, is to seize the initiative and attack, to control the ball. I think that’s what Johan Cruyff, the smartest coach of all time, said. And he is 100 percent right. We will try to do this. Will it work out for us? I don’t know, we’ll see.”
“Lozano? A great player with a great career. He scored a lot of goals. A winger, different from, for example, Noah Lang or Bakayoko, very decisive, very quick, uses space, knows how to score. A football player who is very difficult to play against. I don’t know if he’ll play tomorrow, we’ll see, but he’s a fantastic footballer. So does Santiago Jimenez. A great striker.”
The match between PSV and Shakhtar will take place on Wednesday, November 27. Start – 22:00 Kyiv time. The match will be officiated by Swiss referee Urs Schnyder.
PSV collected five points after four matches in the general stage of the 2024/25 Champions League. Peter Bosz’s team lost to Juventus (1:3), drew against Sporting (1:1) and PSG (1:1), and also defeated Girona (4:0). In the overall standings, the club from Eindhoven ranks 24th.
In the overall Champions League standings, the Miners are in 27th place with four points to their name. Until the end of the general stage of the tournament, Shakhtar has four matches left – in addition to PSV, the Donetsk club will play with Bayern (December 10), Brest (January 22) and Borussia Dortmund (January 29).
Source: Sportarena
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