Mircea Lucescu: I am glad to have seen Shakhtar’s former performance

Press conference by Shakhtar head coach after the game vs Olimpik.

- Shakhtar have recovered after the game against Bayern. Today, they had a very strong will and dedication. Naturally, this resulted in a major victory. As for the meeting – I am glad to have seen Shakhtar’s former performance, with dynamics, good pace, concentration and attention to each episode. I saw their great desire to move, to put pressure on the opponents on every bit of ​​the field. They created many goal-scoring chances: converted some of them and could have scored more goals in a number of episodes. I think the guys deserved this victory today.

- How are you going to fill a big break after the 17th round? And what do you make of Shakhtar’s chances to win the league title?
- With regard to the pause, this is surrogate league season, as I said, it’s artificial. Perhaps, it should not be held like that. And now it is not clear: three weeks without playing football! Probably, no one thought about the clubs from Donbas, whose presidents experience extensive expenses to keep these teams in the Ukrainian League. Although they might know that no one has a chance to win the competition. We do not play any games for three weeks, though we pay to the players. That’s huge expenses! Someone wants to fly home ... I do not really understand it all: how could one organise this kind of league season at all? Now imagine what would happen if all the Donbas teams could not participate because of the very high costs, playing without their audiences, without permanently residing in other places. All the presidents of the Donbas clubs should be thanked for the fact that they retain the teams and the league season continues. I am referring not to Shakhtar alone. But to all the teams, which, unfortunately, left Donbas. Three weeks without playing - it is generally impossible! I repeat once again: the players get paid for this time, and that’s great expenditure. So I'm not very happy with the fact that the league season is interrupted for as many as three weeks. It must be conducted according to the established dates, the approved calendar. Not just one or another team suffer because of this, the whole league does. It is important for the country and Ukrainian football to go through this difficult period and return to a great league, where all have equal chances, where football ethics are present. Perhaps those who made decisions for this league season, should think very carefully about the next championship. We had about thirty flights. It is very difficult even physically. For me, the most important thing now is to have the team return to the football, for which we were loved and valued by the supporters.

- Today, Shakhtar’s defensive third made the same mistakes as they had done in the match vs Bayern, with the only difference of Olimpik’s skill.
- I do not want to get back to the game with Bayern, in which we were robbed in the opening minutes. Let’s get back to playing here ... Bayern remembered how hard it was for them in Lviv. They created virtually no chances. They had the only chance when Robben pushed Shevchuk and entered the penalty area. They knew there would be problems with us, probably fearing our counterattacks. We had entirely different objectives for the return game, but after the events that happened, all, unfortunately, went flat. As an indication of that - in the first half we ran six kilometres more than in the second one. The impression was that the players had completely given up. So this week I had some very tough talks with the team, made a tough analysis. Hopefully, it’s been a positive reaction to that today.

- Costa was called up to Brazil national team. Why don’t they call up Teixeira, according to you?
- Unfortunately, this is the problem of their national team coach. Probably, Dunga has different vision. I talked to him on the subject, I said that Teixeira deserves being called up to the national team through his performance. But Dunga decides otherwise so far. It's hard to step in and say something. But if Alex plays on like that, his time will come.

FC Shakhtar
Press Office

Roman Sanzhar: Scoreline reflects class difference between teams

Press conference by Olimpik coach in the wake of the meeting with the Pitmen.

- The scoreline reflects the class difference between the teams. Shakhtar have played very well today. We watched their match against Metalist, in which the Orange-and-Blacks had a great many chances, failing to convert them though. We tried to take this information seriously, but we ourselves created chances for the opponents.

- You had the opportunity to score, why didn’t it work?

- Again, the difference in class reflects the score difference. It’s true that we had some goal-scoring chances, in some episodes we could beat them while one-on-one, but we took the simple and obvious decisions in those situations.

FC Shakhtar
Press Office