The head coach of Shakhtar Donetsk Ihor Jovichevich said what he thinks about his team's return match against the French "Rennes" in the 1/16 finals of the Europa League, which will take place today in Rennes. We will remind you that the first meeting between the rivals ended with the victory of the "miners" with a score of 2:1.
Ihor Yovichevich"First of all, we know it's the playoffs, so the focus has to be game by game. And I tried to adjust the team to this approach: to have a focus on the game plan, a motivational aspect on the match ahead. The first game is over, we have made conclusions and tactical analysis, recovered and now we have a match in front of us - it's 95 minutes, regardless of the role of this game: whether it is a qualifying match or a qualifying match. It's just a match and we have to focus on it.
If we do the things we did in the first leg, which allowed us to dominate the game both up and down, then we can think we can get a good result. But, I say once again, we have an opinion only about victory, not about some kind of calculation. Because we don't have the experience in Europe to be able to adjust and control emotions in order to play somewhere, as they say, "at a draw". We can't do that. Therefore, we must think only about victory and do what we did in the first match.
From the first day of our journey, which began half a year ago, we always feel a huge responsibility to the Ukrainian people, to Ukraine, to the soldiers who are fighting for our freedom, even at trainings, and not only at matches. And thanks to them every day and a hundred times a day. And we want them, when they watch our matches, to feel proud, to be proud of our battle, our fight that we give on the football field, regardless of the result.
Football is a game, it's a game after all. And what is happening now in Ukraine is life. Therefore, we want to put our lives on the football field and thank the soldiers for what they do for us where they really show their character and freedom. We are stronger together. And everything we do and have been doing for the past six months is how we thanked the Armed Forces, the people who fight for us, give their lives for us. We only play football, but we play with heart and we give our last strength on the field so that when they watch those 95 minutes, they will be proud of us. This is our responsibility in tomorrow's match and in the future as long as this terrible war continues, which I want to see end.
We will fight, as I have already said, until the end. Because we have no other way out. With the mentality, with the tactical plan, individual responsibility, organization of the game, we will think only about victory. It will be a very difficult match, because we are talking about Rennes, whose main characteristics are aggressiveness, dynamics, pace, rhythm. And especially the atmosphere in the stadium: their fans will chase them from the first minutes. But we are ready for that and we have to respond to their pace with our aggression, our game plan, our thinking that we can win this match," Jovicevich said at the pre-match press conference.
