Shakhtar vs Dnipro: players’ view

15-08-15 00:38:38

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Players of the Donetsk team have reflected on the match with Dnipro.

Ivan Ordets, Shakhtar’s defender:

- We lacked aggression upfront. It's hard to say why it happened. Yes, we controlled the ball well, but did not create dangerous chances. We must work on creating goal-scoring opportunities and as well as on converting them. We had chances: Gladkyy and Alex could have scored in the end of the first half - and the game may have turned out to be different. Dnipro defended well, sitting behind the line of the ball, deploying almost five defenders - even Seleznyov dropped deep to his half of the pitch. We can say that the Dnipropetrovsk side did not even close us down. Everything was taking place in the opponents’ half of the pitch, but Dnipro had two successful counterattacks... There will be analysis of the match, then the coach will point out errors. We will analyse the game and prepare for the Champions League. So, we you should forget this game and go into the match with Rapid with positive emotions.

Taras Stepanenko, Shakhtar’s midfielder:

- Today, everything that was going on the pitch was analysed by us before the match. We just made such mistakes... I do not understand! We all know that we play attacking football, but today there was a large number of misplaced passes. Dnipro have fast players, who, of course, took advantage of that... Plus that episode with Vyacheslav. Yes, perhaps he was too emotional which led to pushing Artem and Artem just competently fell. I honestly do not think that there was actually such a strong push. But this is a tactical move. I know that, for example, at Ferguson's Manchester United, it was forbidden to do so, and those who did so were penalised. This is football, and many players do that. Nevertheless, there is not an official taboo. It is clear that it doesn’t portray everyone in a good light. But Artem earned a red card for his team.