Mykola Nesenyuk: "This European season, the 'fools' have been on Shakhtar's side for a long time. And this time there was real f

Well-known journalist Mykola Nesenyuk has commented on Shakhtar Donetsk's shameful 1-7 defeat of Feyenoord in the return leg of the Europa League last-16 tie in Rotterdam yesterday.

"In August 1997, Ukrainian Serhiy Rebrov brought our national team a victory over Albania by scoring an incredible goal from the goal line in the last minutes. When journalists asked how he did it after the game, Serhiy replied: "A fool flew in!".

At the time, there was no one to advise the young player that he shouldn't say that. But the mistake was corrected and two years later, when Andriy Shevchenko scored a "fool" to Filimonov, he explained after the game that it was intended. And in vain - in the very next game against Slovenia, the "fool" hit Shovkovsky's goal and we did not make it to Euro 2000.

Such "fools", i.e. random and sometimes meaningless goals, are an integral part of the game of football. They make football exciting and unpredictable. We just need to understand that this is a chance, not a pattern, and not take credit for them.

This European season, the fools have been on Shakhtar's side for a long time. First in Leipzig last fall, then in Rennes in February. The climax was the goal against Feyenoord a week ago.

Some people thought it would always be like that. A chorus of zealous experts were racing to analyze Shakhtar's chances of winning in Rotterdam, although even a "fool" could see that the opponent was a lot stronger.

Of course, Shakhtar did not deserve such a shameful defeat. But what can you do - it was real football. No 'fools'!" Nesenyuk wrote on his Facebook page.