Today, in the postponed match of the 9th round of the Ukrainian championship Shakhtar Donetsk defeated visiting Minay - 4:1. Here are some post-match comments from the head coaches of the two sides.
Igor Jovicevic, Shakhtar head coach: "The championship is the main priority for us, because without successful performances in the championship there will be no European competitions. It is important for the next matches to end like with Minaya, because it will allow us to play in the European competitions again.
Today the match seemed to be what we wanted it to be: aggressive at the start, to direct the game in the right direction. We acted against a difficult opponent. Although the result was convincing, I would not say we had an easy outing. There were enough chances to make the score even bigger. But Minaya showed in the first half that they can sharpen the game with any opponent on the counterattack.
It is very important three points, because we cut the gap with Dnipro-1. Now begins an extremely interesting second round, where every game will be very responsible, and you will not have the right to make a mistake. We are ready and want to continue in the same spirit, though there are also European Cup matches. Only time will tell where we will be, but the team is ready both mentally and physically".
Vladimir Sharan, head coach of Minaya: "It's nice to play against such a team. We know what we can do at this stage, so I did not say anything bad to the guys after the game. It`s great that we had such an opponent, because thanks to such matches my players will only gain experience. Congratulations to Shakhtar on their victory. I would like to play to win against each opponent, but you have to really understand that at this stage Shakhtar are much stronger than Minai.
At the beginning of the match it was obvious that the guys were nervous, even though we talked enough about it in theory sessions, but psychology plays a very important role in modern soccer. I was looking in the water, saying that we must not concede from the standard. After the second goal the guys were confused, but then I was satisfied with the 15-minute period of the game. With the score 0-1 Vishnevskiy could score, later Baidal had an opportunity, but Trubin played well. We didn`t expect to concede the third goal so quickly, after which it was hard to dream of a draw. Again, I didn't say anything to the guys because we lost to a good team.
