Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Taras Stepanenko commented on the results of the Champions League group stage draw, according to which the Ukrainian club will play against Barcelona, Porto and Antwerp.
- I am very satisfied. There is a team from Spain - "Barcelona", and it is super. There will be Porto - I guessed it. And "Antwerp" is a team, with which you can play and get the result. So, in principle, we can say that the lot is good, and it depends only on us how we will perform. After all, I believe, we have every chance to fight and get out of the group, so that the Ukrainian team, Shakhtar, could have a Eurosesan. However, to say is one thing, but to do is a bit different. Therefore, we should work very well.
To be honest, I haven't watched Porto matches for a long time. I know that they had some problems last season: they fought for a long time for the championship and then dropped out of the race. I think they are not a very stable team, and that's why you can play with them. As we can see, now Benfica is also playing in periods. In general, Portuguese teams and the whole Portuguese football is such that there are a lot of technical guys who like to play with the ball. And with them you can get a result, because as long as we played with teams from Portugal - Porto, Benfica, Braga - we always got a result.
As far as I know, now Barcelona are no longer playing at the Camp Nou, which is under reconstruction. And it's a pity, because I wanted to play at this legendary stadium. But still, Barcelona is Barcelona. And it's very cool.
Last year we were given no chances at all, but we played well and got out of the group, and we could have even reached the Champions League play-offs - everything was decided in the last match. So to say now that we will definitely get out of the group is disrespectful to our opponents. We must realise that now all the teams are very strong, they are all getting stronger," Stepanenko said.