Mircea Lucescu: I'm happy with young players’ performance

Press conference by Shakhtar head coach after defeating Ternopil.

- When the game is played in such an atmosphere, the score is not that important. I would note how the fans supported their players until the end of the match. Even losing 0-5, they cheered the players up! So first of all, I would like to congratulate the organizers of today's match. I was very pleased to be present at the cup match in such an atmosphere. Recalling how many spectators attended the recent league games, today I want to congratulate everyone on the fact that the stands were full. Of course, the result corresponds to the major advantage we enjoyed. The hosts performed well in the first half: they were very compactly placed on the pitch, playing in an orderly fashion. But unfortunately, they survived only the first half of the match. Ternopil played very tightly against our players - nearly one on one. Naturally, playing like that, they lost much power, lacking it for the second half. At half-time I told my players: “It’s likely that the opponents will not be able to withstand 90 minutes, so be ready to make use of the open spaces to appear in their defence.” I’m happy with the performance of the young guys we brought with us for today's match. Four of them played in the UEFA Youth League final last year: Kovalenko, Matviyenko, Zubkov and Boryachuk. Plus Korobenko, who also appeared today – a very young, eighteen-year-old guy. I am pleased with their performance in the match! In general, I am very happy to be back to this city. Why wouldn’t we play our second cup game here as well? We’ll think it over.

- The president of FC Ternopil and the city mayor Serhiy Nadal offered you to come here and play the games here in the future. How serious is that offer for you?
- Both the city mayor and I are serious people. We will discuss this issue and take a decision.

Vasyl Ivehesh: We could play Shakhtar even four times in a row

Post-match press conference by Ternopil coach.

- We had a task - to present a festival to the fans. Well, what can I say? We still have the return leg, we will try our best. We can play against Shakhtar even four times in a row, since that’s a festival!

- Through what did you try to resist Shakhtar?
- Through the will. Although we knew that we would also face major motivation on their part, because the young players of Shakhtar tried to prove their best to make it to the first XI. We had some tough games in the league. You have seen that in the opening 30 minutes our defenders did not allow the opponents to gather pace, to play it wide and get the ball for as long as they could. We wanted to concede as few goals as possible. Of course, it’s difficult to lose with such a big score, because we wanted to make a festival for Ternopil.

- There is some talk that the return leg might be played in Ternopil. Would you like that?
- I will say personally for myself: yes. Definitely I want another festival. We did our best for Shakhtar to feel comfortable here. We gave the Donetsk team a warm welcome, plus the outcome has finally been positive for them. But everything depends on Shakhtar. Of course, we would be delighted to meet here again. I think the fans too. Had the match taken place, for example, in Lviv, probably just some 100-200 people would have attended it. And now look what was going on here! I hope that the senior executives of Shakhtar will think about it. People say that they liked Ternopil. I don’t know whether the team liked it. But, anyway, it would be great to meet here with Shakhtar again.

- What was the reason behind the fact that your team got off to a poor start in the second half, according to you?
- My dressing room task for them was to park the bus and stand at least for another 15 minutes. At some point we got slack, started playing offensively and just got our lot. I want to tell you that even at 0-2 we mustn’t have exposed ourselves. While we charged forward to score and got two more goals, then another one ... One can’t play openly against such teams. Yes, in the opening 30 minutes there probably was no spectacular football on our part, but the result was there.