Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Taras Stepanenko spoke in an interview with the foreign publication Inews about the realities of Ukrainian football in war conditions.
Taras Stepanenko. Photo: shakhtar.com"We started the season without a home, a coach and a team. No one even believed that we would come close to it (the championship - editorial note). They said that Dynamo or Dnipro 1 would win the UPL. They retained almost all their players, and we again built everything from scratch.
Playing in Ukraine, you do not know what will happen in a few minutes. When we heard the air-raid siren, we would go to the basement. Sometimes it was two or three times a game. All I could think about as we ran inside, even though a bomb might have been flying towards us, was, "Why did the match stop when we were on the attack?" All we talked about in cover was football, tactics and things like that. It could go on for up to three hours. After the alarm, you have to stretch again and then start from where you finished.
Yes, this is very unusual, but this is the Ukrainian reality now. That's life, but it's my duty to be the captain for these young brave players," Stepanenko said.
