Last Tuesday, Shakhtar Donetsk played a draw with Scottish Celtic (1:1) in the match of the 5th round of the Champions League group stage. The fight took place in Glasgow. Your attention to the post-match comments of the head coaches of the teams that met.
Igor Jovicevich, Shakhtar head coach: "All liked it. When the result is as it should be, when a draw tastes like a victory, then these are very positive emotions for me personally as a coach and for the whole team.
We really expected a tough game and all European teams know that playing here at Celtic Park in front of 57,000 people is not easy even for more experienced teams. But we are so brave, so brave that we think not so much about the consequences, but about our performances, about our game. When a team shows that during a match it can change the pace and rhythm, become a protagonist, endure, counterattack and show character at the same time. The character shown by the Ukrainian people, who fight for our freedom, for all of us. Including for athletes, those who play and represent Ukraine on the biggest stage - the Champions League.
This result is very important for us. We take it as a great success. Because three months ago no one believed in us, but we did. We believed in daily work. And this is just a consequence of the family atmosphere that we have created. These guys are heroes, really heroes.
We were focused and absolutely motivated to play. We know that Ukrainian soldiers fight and, unfortunately, die every day. We constantly remember this and try to transfer their courage to the football field. It is difficult to describe these emotions. There is a war going on. And, as you know, I am a Croatian by nationality, but I have known Ukrainians for 20 years and I understand the whole situation very well. But it is also important to understand the mentality of what is happening now. And therefore, we felt full responsibility and pride for representing Ukraine. We fought to the end and believed that we could win. It wasn't easy. And in general, this whole political situation is difficult. But we must fight on."
Angelos Postecoglu, Celtic head coach: “We created many opportunities, unfortunately, we were not able to realize all the moments. We scored a goal, but after that we did not use many chances. Shakhtar answered us with a goal.
Of course, we are upset by the result and what we missed. It is a great experience for us to play at such a level, we are progressing and improving the quality of the game. It is impossible to achieve everything quickly, so we set goals for the long term and for years, and we have already made some progress over the last season. The main goal was to test the team against the backdrop of a stronger opponent, of course, we could have done more, but it happened the way it happened. The main thing is to play against someone who is stronger than you, but we did our best.
Of course, at this stage it is hard to be surprised at anything, since we played against stronger opponents. This is a very difficult level, and we fell short in some components, we even know which ones. We lacked in terms of implementation, also in such matches there was a question of class, so we understand our mistakes. We are disappointed with our place in the group, but Celtic are an ambitious club and we will work further to improve our results.
This season we have learned a lot, and we will use it in the future. It's hard to achieve success when you play in the Champions League every five years. In order not to lose this experience, we set the task of qualifying for the tournament again. We have tested ourselves, we know what we are capable of, we know what is required of us in order to progress in the Champions League. This level of responsibility and play requires a lot more effort and experience.”
