Former Oleksandriya head coach Yuriy Gura has told us what he thinks about the readiness of Dnipro-1 and Shakhtar Donetsk for the European Cup play-offs. As a reminder, Dnipro will face AEK Cyprus in the Conference League, while Shakhtar will play French side Rennes in the Europa League.
Yurii Hura. Photo by D. Rudenko- What was your impression of Shakhtar and Dnipro-1 following the winter training camp?
- I can't say that Shakhtar have changed much, it's just that they will now play without Mudryk. And Dnipro-1, on the contrary, has become better. In the games I saw, Dnipro-1 left a very decent impression.
"Shakhtar were looking for their game more, but Shakhtar are Shakhtar. With the players they have available, they should be able to play very decent football. There are young players like Kryskiv, Bondarenko, Sudakov. In short, there are a lot of people who could play decent football. Zubkov, for example, can play both on the right and on the left.
- How do you assess Shakhtar's chances against Rennes and Dnipro-1's against AEK?
- I would like both teams to bring points to Ukraine's European Cup treasury. But that's optimism, it's hard to predict what will happen on the football pitch. Still, I want to believe that following the results of the two matches, in both cases, the final score will be in favour of the Ukrainian clubs.
Daniil Vereitin
