In Hamburg, Germany, Shakhtar Donetsk lost to Portuguese Porto 1:3 at the start of the Champions League group stage.Honoured coach of Ukraine Myron Markevych clarified what Shakhtar can expect in the European Cup campaign:
Myron Markevych (photo: fckarpaty.org.ua)- Even before the match against Porto, I said in a comment to one of your colleagues that at best the Pitmen would finish third in their group. And not because among their opponents are top Barcelona and Porto. Simply the level of Shakhtar's players' preparation does not allow them to hope for more.
- In yesterday's game with Porto, did you notice any tactical innovations, home-made preparations in the Donetsk team?
- I am not going to analyse the decisions of my colleague from Shakhtar. After all, he is responsible for the result. But for the sake of fairness, it should be said that Patrick van Leeuwen is only at the beginning of his journey. For now, the Dutch specialist can only sympathise. After all, he played one squad, and then came injuries, disqualifications and everything had to start all over again.
You play one scheme, it seemed that there were shifts, but Sikan's childish mistake, which led to the second conceded goal, brings everything to naught. By the way, in this game episode Sikan had several options, but he chose the worst one, making a pass through the centre of the pitch. That this should not be done is taught in the initial groups of youth schools. As they say, we have what we have.
- Such fights, as against Porto, show what you are really worth.
- I agree. We have to state that Shakhtar of the current model have no "trump cards" that would allow them to resist the favourites of the group - Barcelona and Porto. Except for the goalkeeper, the rest of the positions are worrying. Of course, this is all against the backdrop of the Champions League, because in the UPL this performance level is still enough to be on the radar. But we always want more.
- And yet, based on yesterday's game, what did you like about the Pitmen's performance?
- Some blurred impression was left. In fact, the game was already done in the first half and it was exactly the case when Shakhtar players realised that they were unable to reach the breakthrough. Yes, there were 1-2 hints of goal-scoring chances, but it was clearly not enough to save themselves from defeat. Yesterday in Hamburg, Porto's players were in the role of hosts and if necessary, they could add and finish things off with a rout.
