Shakhtar's head coach Patrick van Leeuwen has revealed what he expects from his side's match against Portuguese side Porto in the Champions League group stage 1 match to be held in Hamburg today.
Patrick van Leeuwen"As coaches, we always watch teams that are interesting to watch to learn about their qualities and style of football. In the past seasons, Porto has always been one of the teams I've paid attention to because they have similar ideas to mine about football and player development, and they provide them with the opportunity to play in the first team. We also have friends who work with Porto all these years in football, so it's always nice to meet them.
How can Shakhtar help Ukraine through football? At the moment, this is the only way for us to help: to inform people around the world about the situation in Ukraine by giving our players the opportunity to participate in international competitions. So there are two goals - to play football and to spread information about current events in Ukraine.
As for the match against Porto in Hamburg, our club decided to play here based on the opportunities. We have to take into account the fact that last year's European Cup matches were held in Warsaw, and this season Legia Warsaw also qualified for the European Cup, so we would have two teams playing in Europe, and this could reduce people's interest in attending the matches. After that, the club became aware that there is interest in international games in Hamburg. Therefore, if we focus on ticket sales, it was a great decision. Here we will meet very good teams. We are pleased with this move, the quality of the stadium and everything else," said van Leeuwen at the pre-match press conference.
