Igor Jovićević: "Rennes were one of the best teams in Europe in terms of form before the World Cup"

Shakhtar Donetsk head coach Igor Jovicevic has shared his thoughts on his side's first match against French side Rennes in the Europa League last 16, which will take place in Warsaw today.

"We are not on equal terms with Rennes, but life in general is not on equal terms now. Two countries - France and Ukraine - are not on equal terms, and we have to accept this as real fighters. Of course, Rennes have a championship going on, they are in a different tone - they played their last match four days ago. We played our last one on 23 November against Vorskla, and that's quite a long time without official matches.

For us, it will be a rather uncertain situation: on the one hand, we have no game practice at this level, because there are only Turkish training camps and friendly games, on the other hand, we can compensate for this handicap with the crazy motivation and unity that has characterised us over the past six months. So, the uncertainty is motivating. This is what I call "fear". Journalists know because I have spoken about this fear many times. But it's not the kind of fear that blocks you, but the kind that makes you more focused on the next game, on the opponent, on stress. And we want to feel it again on Thursday.

As for the opponent, we are talking about Rennes, who were one of the best teams in Europe in terms of their form before the World Cup. This is shown by the statistics themselves: they did not lose 17 matches in a row and were at the top of the French championship, which is one of the top 5 leagues. On the other hand, from the World Cup until now, they have had a small crisis in results, where not everything has worked out as they are used to. Of course, we also want to take advantage of this.

However, I have mentioned two factors - the lack of our tone, which we will compensate for 100 per cent with motivation and desire. We haven't played an official match for a long time, and starting in the Europa League means increasing our motivation and character to show our best tomorrow," Jovetic said at the pre-match press conference.