Ruslan Rotan: "We wanted to play with Shakhtar at number one, but we were scared"

Head coach of "Alexandria" Ruslan Rotan commented on the defeat of his team from Shakhtar Donetsk (1:2) in yesterday's match of the 3rd round of the Ukrainian championship.

"There were two different halves, if we talk about "Alexandria". In the first half we got lost or more scared, because we wanted to play the first number one. We constantly tell the guys that even with such teams you need to control the ball and not be afraid to play with it and make mistakes. But mistakes to mistakes is a big difference. If we train it and make mistakes - no question, but if we don't train it and make mistakes, it's a problem. The guys understand, and that is the most important thing.

In the second half, it was a different team, we strived for more, apparently, we deserved more. But we have to accept the result as it is. I think, if we keep this attitude of the team to be better, which we have in training, then these victories will come in the future.

The main thing is to draw conclusions from mistakes and not to be afraid to make mistakes. Especially young players become stronger because of mistakes. Our number one task is to rebuild the guys. We want to be a team that dictates conditions on the pitch even to such teams as Shakhtar. If we don't set limits, they will be satisfied with little, and we don't want that. We want them to win, and even now, after the defeat, the guys in the dressing room realise that the game was so formed in the second half that we could even win," Rotan said.