Mircea Lucescu: Luck turned its back on us

30-05-15 23:42:26

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The post-match press conference by Shakhtar head coach.

- It is very important that we claimed the second spot and ended up in the qualifying round of the Champions League. We found the first half easy, and then our two incredible mistakes allowed Karpaty to equalise. I don’t remember the opponents’ other chances, but we have created some 4 or 5 dangerous situations, after which we could have scored goals. Overall, it was a tough season. To be honest, we even had no luck, we lost too many points in the games where we created numerous chances. Again, luck turned its back on us, while the opponents converted some half-chances. I want to mention Karpaty. They are the team with a great future, being well-organised and disciplined. Young players want to prove themselves, fighting for ball every time, carrying out a huge volume of work. I think Karpaty have been the league season surprise, even though they sit bottom of the table. My congratulations to them on today’s great performance. We are now going to prepare for the Ukrainian Cup final.

- Teixeira has put his name on the scoresheet again, becoming the top scorer. Was it important for you that he would score, did you give him this task?
- Every year we try to win the top scorer title. We create many chances, so we always have some real good scorers among us. Probably, the team deserve it. Teixeira still had more situations where he could have scored. The area he operates in, allows him to create chances on his own, plus the teammates help him. Mkhitaryan used to play in the same role. While Alex deserves congratulations for being permanently focused on target and making use of his scoring chances. The season proved good for him. Owing to his goals, we scored a lot of points.

- How hard was it for you to play due to the fact that the match was being suspended all the time?
- I have already said and want to repeat that that’s been an abnormal league season, an artificial one, a war-time one. And this affects football matches. Every fan does just what they want to. But fans mustn’t act like that in the stands! This does not happen in any league in the civilized world. They lack discipline, order, respect, responsibility - all the regular factors that should be present. If all this is missing, that’s a negative point in terms of football’s entertainment side. We also might have suffered from it. I just can’t remember whether it happened in the encounter with Porto or the one with Atletic ... In Europe, this can be punished very harshly. One should be very careful. Fans must learn to behave properly and respect the others. The players, not the fans should be major figures on the pitch. Players are the main characters of a match. Otherwise, the fans draw just too much attention. It’s difficult to play in such conditions.

- Do you have any updates regarding Luiz Adriano?
- Nothing particular so far. We will play the Ukrainian Cup final and then think it over together. A lot will depend on the next league season format and the venue for holding matches. At the moment we have many questions with no answers.

FC Shakhtar