Fenerbahce vs Shakhtar: players’ opinion

29-07-15 01:44:05

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Players of the Donetsk team have reflected on the match in Istanbul.

Darijo Srna, Shakhtar’s captain:

- We are not very happy with the result. We wanted to win. I believe that today we deserved to claim a victory, but the final result is 0-0. In my opinion, Fenerbahce should be more pleased than us. From the first minutes it was clear that we had come to play open, attacking football. We created a lot of chances, but, alas, did not score... Fenerbahce’s goalkeeper put on a fine performance! At halftime, Fenerbahce made some changes and played with a 4-2-3-1 formation, but we still had a few half chances. Chances are equal! The second leg will not be easy, but we are going to attack. And if Shakhtar play the same way as today, in the first half, we must advance further.

Alex Teixeira, Shakhtar’s midfielder:

- It is a pity that we have failed to capitalise on our chances. We were just unlucky. I had a good chance in the first half. But I thought that I was in an offside position, so I didn’t react quickly in that situation. The supporters were passionately rooting for their team, but we withstood the pressure and managed to achieve a positive result. Especially since tomorrow is Mister’s birthday. Though, probably, we will give him a real present a little later, if we qualify. But in any case, tomorrow I will hug and congratulate the coach personally.

Marlos, Shakhtar’s midfielder:

- This is a very important result! Today we faced decent opponents. Fenerbahce are very skilled, cohesive team with excellent technically strong players. And Shakhtar did not look inferior to them, which is why there is such scoreline. We have studied the opponents well and played well too. We had some chances that we could have put away. But, unfortunately, we were unlucky. I am confident that in the home match we will succeed! Today I just did not expect such pressure from the stands. In Turkey, the fans are fantastic.

Ivan Ordets, Shakhtar’s defender:

- On the eve of the match the guys supported me a lot. And Darijo told me to just take to pitch and show my game, and then everything would be fine. When you play, you do not pay attention to whom you are playing against. It is important that we have achieved a good result; we kept a clean sheet, created chances, especially in the first half, but unfortunately we failed to convert them. We had a lot of the counterattacks. In the second half of the game, there was already tiredness, the heat made itself felt. Naturally, at home we will need to play more carefully, in a more reliable manner than today. In general, the most difficult in this game was to get used to the pressure of the crowd: we were booed even during the warm-up.