The performances of our two representatives in the group stages of the European Cup tournaments shaped the news coverage of the reporting week. Unfortunately, Ukrainian fans were severely disappointed by Shakhtar's game, while Zorya managed to make a positive news story.
Even on the eve of the Pitmen's start in the Champions League, some observers sounded the alarm, expressing doubts about the ability of Patrick van Looven's team to adequately face Portuguese side Porto in the first round of the competition. In particular, Dmytro Vatras shared his thoughts on this matter with the readers of the Tribuna website. In his opinion, the next restructuring of the game, associated with the replacement of the head coach, does not add to the optimism of the Orange and Blacks.
"On the contrary, there are a number of factors that make the belief in success, at least at the start of the group stage, seem too encouraging," the author believes (Ua.tribuna.com, 19.09.23).
He states that the team's players will not get used to the more "vertical" football that the Dutch coach is trying to instil in the team. Another disturbing factor is the not-so-convincing physical readiness of Shakhtar's players, who are "slipping" even in domestic league matches.
"The team regularly gave the initiative to the opponent after leaving the dressing room - even when they had to be active. The most problematic were the attempts to play a hold-up, which provoked a sharpness in the immediate vicinity of the goal. "It's not that Shakhtar don't want to close the game out - they usually can't do it. Neither through control nor through defensive work. One of the reasons is fatigue with such intensity. Hence, the same red cards, because according to the instructions, you have to be aggressive, but the players often do not keep up with the pace," reads D. Vatras's article (Ua.tribuna.com, 19.09.23).
Injuries and personnel losses only add to the disappointing picture, which was reflected in the result of the meeting with Porto (1-3). The criticism caused by the defeat was expected, but its general tone was so harsh that it seemed as if the Ukrainian champion, who was the last Ukrainian club to start on the continental stage, was responsible for our entire European Cup squad, including those teams that had already been eliminated from the draw.
"If you believe the insiders, Jovicevic was fired because the top management did not forgive the humiliation of Feyenoord in the Europa League (7-1)," Taras Kotiv (Football24.ua, 19.09.23) says, "So, then there were almost the same statistics of missed shots - and even with a lower xG of the opponent and a higher indicator of expected goals. It's just that today Riznyk made 6 saves, and then everything was flying in for Rotterdam. The progress so far is only in a smaller score, but the opponent, just like in the spring, controlled the game almost from start to finish."
"Even before the match, I was very scared for Shakhtar, and it seemed that a serious failure was very likely - the Pitmen had so many problems," Oleksandr Sazhko supports his colleague (Ua.tribuna.com, 19.09.23). "But perhaps this is the question that should be asked: why did Shakhtar approach this Champions League in almost the same disassembled state as the previous one, when the team was assembled at the last minute from what was lying around? They changed the chaotic coach to a systematic one, signed 7 (!) legionnaires only in the summer, and in fact, this team is still perhaps even worse than last year's - at least it is very close to it in its current state."
Van Leeuwen was frankly surprised by the starting line-up, which did not include some of the seasoned players, but even included absolute debutants. Analysts have concluded that such experiments at the highest club level are a forced step, not from a good life. And the quite logical outcome of the confrontation is as deplorable as Shakhtar's prospects in the current league campaign.
"Shakhtar are unlikely to be able to keep the intrigue in the fight for a place in the Champions League play-offs this season, as they were a year ago," Terrikon.com (20.09.23) said. "Porto clearly demonstrated the difference that exists between the Donetsk team and those who are really in contention to reach the last 16. Alas, the result is disappointing. The more pressing question is whether Shakhtar will be able to compete with Antwerp for third place in the group."
"Lemkin's muscle injury forced van Leeuwen to rebuild almost the entire defence during the game. The debutant Miroshi ended up playing as a central defender, which almost cost the team the fourth goal on two occasions. As for the attack, everything was down to Zubko, and although he made several interesting shots on target, Kosta had no intention of conceding any more goals," a summary by an anonymous author of the Sport.ua portal (20.09.23) clearly hints that van Leeuwen does not have the depth of the squad to strengthen the team's far from ideal performance this season.
However, journalists have a lot of complaints about the coach himself: not only about the squad, but also about tactics, motivation, etc.
"About van Leeuwen. So far, I don't see how he is fundamentally better than Jovicevic. It's probably too early. But sometimes it seems that the 'lighter' Croatian is more suited to the current harsh times at Shakhtar than the authoritarian, stone-faced Dutchman," writes Igor Yurich (Ua-football.com, 20.09.23).
"The current head coach of the Pitmen is inferior to his predecessor in terms of emotions, drive, charisma," Valeriy Vasylenko notes in unison (Sport.ua, 20.09.23). Jovicevic, for all his messiness, found the strength and courage to admit his mistakes and take the blame. Van Leeuwen cannot boast of such qualities yet."
"This squad still has a lot of progress to make to play in the Champions League. But after the first match, it seemed that van Leeuwen was also part of the problem and failed in his part of the job - both in terms of the team's overall readiness for the match and in specific decisions," O. Sazhko delves into the topic (Ua.tribuna.com, 19.09.23). "With van Leeuwen, you really need to be patient - he needs distance. Yes, there is nothing wrong with losing to Porto, but still, I would like the coach's decisions to be clear. And, it seems, the second thing Shakhtar lacked after Jovetic's drive was logical decisions by the coach for a particular match."
Of course, it would be unfair to do without trying to find at least a minimum of positives about the current chapter in the Pitmen's history. Observers point to Zubkov's attacking efforts, Riznyk's actions on the last line and the potential of those players who are still in reserve or recovering from injuries: Matvienko, Bondar, Traore, Shved, Petriak and Chygrynsky.
And van Leeuwen, in fact, is capable of improving the situation, according to the press.
"It's a hard blow for the coach, but I want to believe that the Dutchman and his coaching staff will cope with the challenge," Serhiy Sytnyk encourages the coach (Footboom1.com, 19.09.23). "It's hard for the emotionally stingy Leuven to find a response from his players after the open-hearted orchestra man Jovetic. Leuven is different and I want him to remain himself, not to adapt to the circumstances, not to follow the lead of his charges who have succeeded in the past..."
The Dutchman's former club, Zorya Luhansk, started in the main draw of the Conference League with a draw against the favourite of their quartet, Belgian Ghent.
"Ghent is currently the leader of the Belgian league. The team plays active, aggressive, fast football, which we were ready for. We can assume that the result is positive for us," Zorya coach Valerii Kryventsov said after the game (Sport.ua, 22.09.23). "The guys worked hard in defence, which prevented the opponent from playing much at our goal. There were enough good chances to score, but today's match was quite shaky - we could have lost or won."
The match in Lublin, Poland, was described by some journalists as a "game to the first goal". However, having conceded a goal in the 67th minute, the nominal hosts found the strength to quickly recover and defend a positive peaceful outcome.
"After an unfortunate setback, Kryventsov's team did not collapse and immediately ran forward, which the opponents did not expect to see. It ended very badly for them - Kiryukhantsev made a shot on the right flank of the penalty area, and Guerrero finally hit the far corner at the second pace, - informs Football.ua (22.09.23). - This moment did not cause a significant revolution in terms of changing the game pattern, and the guests also put pressure on our possessions. But Turbayevsky simply performed his duties in good faith, saving the team at a critical moment. This was sometimes lacking in our other European Cup players."
The role of Zorya's goalkeeper proved to be decisive, but the teammates also showed their character, winning a valuable point for Ukraine's European Cup tally.
"We should note the selfless play of the Luhansk team and the reaction of the goalkeeper. Zorya managed to achieve the result by joint efforts," states Terrikon.com (22.09.23).
"The somewhat sensational 1-1 result allowed Zorya to earn points in the standings and Ukraine to gain points in the coefficient table. And, of course, Valerii Kryventsov earned a plus to his coaching reputation," says Serhii Rypiuk (Sport.ua, 21.09.23).
Many European Cup debutants came out for Luhansk Star, and 20-year-old Anton Bol, on loan from Dynamo, played his first game for the Black and Whites. So a certain imbalance was visible to the naked eye. There was a clear sense of excitement in the actions of Zorya's players, but there was no panic or unnecessary fuss. On the contrary, the hosts tried to come out of defence with a short pass and, despite the pressure from their opponents, managed to hold on.
"1:1 is a draw that I think Zorya deserved and which can certainly be called an achievement, given the turbulent state of Luhansk, who have changed three coaches in six months," Yevhen Savchuk pays tribute to the team (Footboom1.com, 21.09.23). "As for the latest one, Valeriy Kryventsov, he made it clear that he has a real plan to build a competitive team. At least, the second half of the match against Ghent gives us reason to hope. The main task now is to stabilise the game, because, as the match in Lublin showed, Zorya acted as a single mechanism in parts, and in parts there was an imbalance between the lines. It will take time to eliminate the consequences of the unsuccessful experiment associated with Lalatović's arrival at the team. Only time will tell whether we should expect any miracles from Kriventsov, given that the overhaul will have to be done on the fly. But there is a positive side to this, as in this situation, Zorya remains a dark horse. So, surprises that are pleasant for Ukrainian fans and, at the same time, unpleasant for competitors are quite possible."
Again, it can be assumed that the favourable assessments of Luhansk's performance are largely due to the combination of failures of the other Ukrainian clubs in the current European season, and that this is a certain advance that will have to be confirmed. However, we want to hope for the best, and we agree with the conclusions drawn by Igor Tsvyk.
"This is the kind of game I would like to see from the Ukrainian team in European competitions. A team that doesn't make childish mistakes in defence, whose goalkeeper does everything he can and sometimes can't. When the coach knows exactly what to do, and the players' knees do not shake even before the starting whistle. Of course, yesterday's draw does not mean we are out of the group. But now we have at least seen that Zorya will compete with their opponents and, perhaps, grab a few more points. And who would have thought that it would be the Luhansk club that would get the most points in the Ukrainian coefficient table this season?" (Sportanalytic.com, 23.09.23).
The value of each point won by Ukrainian clubs is confirmed by their position in the UEFA coefficient table.
"The first round of the group stage of European competitions was not very happy for Ukraine," Sportarena.com calculates (22.09.23), "Zorya and Shakhtar earned only one draw between them, and Ukraine dropped to 18th position in the rankings. Yes, we are likely to retain our place in the top 20 at the end of the season, but we may not be able to hold on to our current position."
Meanwhile, in the FIFA rankings for national teams, the Blue and Yellows are in 24th position (Ukraine is 13th among European representatives). This was facilitated by a point won by Serhii Rebrov's men in the match against the English. Unfortunately, the defeat by Italy was not the only loss afterwards - the Ukrainian Football Association was punished by the UEFA Disciplinary Committee, which accused our fans of racist behaviour.
"The UAF will have to pay a fine of 20,000 euros," reports Footboom1.com (20.09.23), "In addition, part of the stands will be closed during the national team's next home match under the auspices of UEFA. It is noted that the UAF will have to notify UEFA in advance of which sectors will be closed. The number of closed seats must be at least 5,000. Also, the UAF will be fined 5,000 euros for launching fireworks and 8,000 euros for blocking public places."
In his interview with Slovenian TV company N1, the president of the European Football Union (UEFA), Alexander Čeferin, paid much attention to the problems associated with fans. He also touched upon such aspects of modern leather ball as the salary cap and multi-club systems, was rather sceptical about the Saudi Arabian "phenomenon", analysed the rapid growth in the popularity of women's football, and again denied the right to exist for the Super League.
For us, the most important part of Cefereen's conversation with a reporter was when he outlined the conditions under which Russian teams could return to the international arena.
"How long will Russia be excluded from European football competitions? Until the end of the war," Obozrevatel.com quoted the official as saying (18.09.23).
The meeting of the presidents of the Ukrainian Premier League clubs was another indication that Ukrainian football continues to function despite martial law and Russian aggression. Since the last time such a summit was held, 12 years ago, the number of issues requiring a productive discussion has increased significantly.
"The meeting took place in a private country club near Kyiv, was held in an informal format and lasted almost 4 hours," Footboom1.com reported (20.09.23): "Dynamo (Ihor Surkis), Dnipro-1 (Viacheslav Fridman), Zorya (Yevhen Heller), Polissya (Gennadiy Butkevych), Kryvbas (Kostiantyn Karamanets), Chornomorets (Volodymyr Heninson), Veres (Ivan Nadein), Kolos (Andriy Zasukha) and LNZ (Dmytro Kravchenko)."
"We can confidently say that now Ukrainian football has a new format - a meeting of club owners. Previously, clubs used to send their managers and people who do not make key decisions to the UPL meetings, but now everything will be different," said Veres president Ivan Nadein. People who invest their money in football. We don't want to invest in a non-transparent and unprofitable story. We need to make it profitable and transparent. Then there will definitely be a result" (Sport.ua, 23.09.23).
The main topic was refereeing. Club owners and representatives shared ideas on how to improve the situation.
"The key focus will be on the openness of the referees, because today this process is as closed as possible," I. Nadein said in an interview with Ukrainian Football, "We want to make the draw process for appointing referees transparent and the referees' comments after matches. We want to see what marks are given to the referees for the match. Later, the clubs will be ready to introduce some kind of referee bonus system to encourage better work, but there will also be sanctions. We also plan to introduce a lie detector for referees" (Ukrfootball.ua, 22.09.23).
It was agreed to work out the issue of the telepool in more detail at the next meeting in October, when the number of participants will expand. Another idea is to appeal to UEFA to transfer solidarity payments to Ukrainian clubs that were supposed to be received by Russian teams. This is about 10 million euros.
Obviously, those who invest in club football want to have more leverage to control the process. We have been talking about this for a long time. And now, perhaps, a decisive step has been taken in this direction.
"We need more representation and influence in the UAF committees," Fanday.net quoted Ivan Nadein as saying (22.09.23). "The problem is that there is no voice from the clubs in the UAF now. We also discussed this - to make the voice of the clubs heard, not just in the media, but also legally. Today, we have one vote out of 40 in the UAF, so the percentage of influence is very low."
The concern of the owners of our country's elite clubs is understandable. The war has deepened the economic and social difficulties that football patrons had to face before.
"Unfortunately, our championship has become weaker, and not in the sense that all the teams have become more or less of the same level, but in the sense that there are no bright foreigners," Ihor Surkis, president of Dynamo Kyiv, sadly stated recently (Sport.ua, 19.09.23).
By the way, according to the participants of the presidents' meeting, Ihor Mykhailovych shared his experience of reorienting Dynamo's strategy towards its own players, which should help the Kyiv team survive the difficult times with less losses. The presence of 11 Ukrainians in the starting line-up of the White and Blues is no longer a surprise. At the same time, the team demonstrates quite bright football, probably the most attractive in the league, as proved by Dynamo's recent victories over Vorskla (2-0) and LNZ (4-2). Under Mircea Lucescu, the veterans (including Andriy Yarmolenko, currently the best sniper in the UPL!) are holding their own, and yesterday's understudies and players returned from loan are proving themselves.
"It was definitely an outstanding match for Volodymyr Brazhko," Mykola Reshniuk assesses the actions of the player who is to replace the former team captain Serhii Sydorchuk in the tactical formations following the game against Cherkasy LNZ. "The central midfielder played his debut match for Dynamo's first team only at the start of the season, and two months later he scored his debut goal for the team. In the third minute of the match in Cherkasy, Brazhko decided to take a long-range shot and made the right decision. The shot was accurate and unmistakable.
In general, Vladimir played a full match on the field, further cementing his status as a key performer in Lucescu's team" (Ua.tribuna.com, 23.09.23).
"Dynamo, who in their current state will be sorely missed in European competitions this autumn, were able to focus on domestic competitions, where they picked up 12 points in five matches.
Orest LELEKA