The head coach of Shakhtar Donetsk, Igor Jovichevich, held his yesterday's pre-match press conference in Warsaw on the eve of today's meeting with Real Madrid in the 4th round of the Champions League group stage in the context of a reaction to a terrorist missile attack by a lapten-footed under-empire called "Russia" on peaceful Ukrainian cities.
Igor Yovichevich. Photo — shakhtar.com"We will win. We will win. It is impossible to destroy us, our spirit, unity. It is possible to spoil our mood temporarily, but it is impossible to destroy us. Together we are strong.
We, athletes, perceive this as a shared responsibility, we closely accept everything that happens in the country and feel great empathy. Many of my football players have families on the territory of Ukraine, and this affects us, but does not destroy our morale. We will fight as the Armed Forces fight for us and for our freedom. This is the minimum of how we can show our respect - to fight in the upcoming game from the first to the last minute.
As for our squad for the match against Real Madrid, everyone in it will be Ukrainians. And Taylor, and me, and Lassina Traore, and Jurasek. All are Ukrainians on Tuesday. And there will be 40 million more Ukrainians. And another 10 million abroad.
There are situations when there is no need to talk much. We have one view of these events. You just look guys in the eyes and support them. We are all together and perfectly understand the situation that has occurred. But we are stronger together. Everyone has a family, everyone worries about her, but we must overcome this obstacle too. We don't give up.
This situation is not for life, it all has to end. I don't just want to say this in an interview and go on training, I want to give you a signal to help us end this war! We need to end this war together! You see what is happening now, and it's terrible. It's not just about football, football can show what happened, because football is driven by emotions. Now we are not talking about football, but about life in general. You want to be free, you want to sleep peacefully, and I also want to sleep without bombs. Help us, it's important! This is life!” Jovicic said.
