Shakhtar vs Bayern: players’ reaction

18-02-15 02:10:25

Text SizePrintSend

The Donetsk team’s footballers shared their opinion about the match vs Bayern.

Darijo Srna, Shakhtar defender and captain:

- We didn’t concede any goals – that’s good, although we should have scored some. Still, we took on Bayern - a top team. And their coach studied us as much as we studied them. I would say that Douglas Costa is no worse than Robben potential wise, and Teixeira and Taison are as good as Ribery. Bayern had virtually no chances. They were opposed by Shakhtar, who played defensively. Played securely! Still, this is our first competitive game after two and a half months. And Munich have had their fifth one. Yes, we can be happy, though we had to take more risks having eleven men. We still have a chance. A slim one, though anything is possible in football. And we will fight to the end: for our club and for our fans!

Oleksandr Hladkyi, Shakhtar forward:

- We well analyzed Bayern. Mister showed us their strengths and weaknesses. So today it turned out to be a good match. Bayern attacked well and we played decently through long passes. Plus after the suspension of Alonso, we found it much easier, we began to control the ball more often and wanted to create as many chances as possible in the opposition goalmouth. Again, we produced a good game today. I think the fans are happy. Thanks a lot for their support! As for the second leg - we still have time, during which we can improve our form. We need to prepare for it well, since the away match will be very different from today’s one.

Andriy Pyatov, Shakhtar goalkeeper:

- We are happy as this is our first official match this year. We defended well throughout the meeting and fulfilled what Mister required of our defence. We allowed the opponents to create virtually no chances! At the same time we launched just few attacks. It is hard to play defensively and be active upfield at the same time. You could see that we put pressure on the opponents in all areas of the field. The main target was not giving away any goals and scoring ourselves if possible. Alonso’s suspension was in our favour, but it didn’t affect the game in general.

Fred, Shakhtar midfielder:

- I think we deserve the top mark. The whole team proved themselves very well. We defended well, attacked well enough. We kept the 0-0 score ... I hope that in the return game, the result will be positive for us. They prepared us for this encounter, they said it would not be easy. Bayern always operate aggressively. Just check out the German league! But we didn’t retreat either today and therefore survived. It is very difficult to play against Bayern. This is a strong team featuring almost the entire squad of Germany. It is quite difficult to highlight any one player. They are all good, but we tried hard and I think that we showed good football. Our chances of reaching the quarter-finals are still equal.

FC Shakhtar
Press Office