Igor Jovicevic: “I don't know what it's like to play in the Europa League. But it's a big challenge!"

Shakhtar Donetsk head coach Igor Jovicevich shared his expectations for his team's performance in the Europa League playoffs. Recall that the Pitmen moved to this tournament following the results of the group stage of the Champions League: in their group with Real Madrid, German RB Leipzig and Scottish Celtic, the Donetsk team took third place.

"I don't know what it's like to play in the Europa League. I don't have such experience. This will be the first performance in the tournament for me, as it was in the Champions League. But as for the first experience - not bad.

We showed our strength, we showed ourselves well in the first match against Leipzig, when the opponent had not yet gained its strength. We combined our character and talent together, we were able to score 6 points - and this, I think, is not so bad.

We have a big challenge ahead of us - the Europa League. We regard this as a chance. There are a lot of good teams playing there. We have time to prepare, there will be a winter break. So let's see. In any case, this is an interesting challenge.

We may be sad that we did not reach the Champions League playoffs, but we cannot lower our heads. We should be proud. More solid and experienced clubs in such conditions would not even get into the Europa League. And many teams didn't go anywhere. So let's move on. Let's take a break from this cycle, forget the Champions League and prepare for the Europa League in February," Jovićević said.