"Shakhtar's third goal in the match against Antwerp is a gift from the refereeing team," - ex-Dinamo striker

Former Dynamo Kyiv striker Oleksandr Kosyrin commented on the victory of Shakhtar Donetsk over Belgian Antwerp (3:2) in the 2nd round of the Champions League group stage.

"Looking back at the first half, we can say that Shakhtar simply walked back on the football field. Sometimes it was done defiantly. Okay, we conceded the first goal, it's football, but Shakhtar were just waiting for something, not really attacking the Belgians. And so it turned out - those were skating, those were waiting.

And Antwerp's second goal upset me completely. The keeper threw the ball to Vermeeren and he passed the ball to Baltkvisha at 30 metres. The visitors' defenders just accompanied their opponent, jogging back. They were playing on points or doing something incomprehensible. Riznyk, who came out of the penalty box, was about to get a red card in this moment. If he had played with his hand outside the penalty box, the referee would have suspended him. Summarising the first half, I would say that I have never seen such a weak, uninitiative Shakhtar before.

But Shakhtar played the second half perfectly. Why did the Pitmen turn the match round? Of course, scoring goals decides everything. Although, our third goal was a gift from the officiating crew. How did VAR not notice the foul in the episode with Zubkov? A moment later, the Antwerp keeper inexplicably ran to catch the ball going out of the field, simply threw it on Nazarina's foot. By the way, I praise Egor in this moment - he did not switch off from the game and made a pass to Sikan.

With the score at 2:3, the hosts were in shock, but ran forward. Their centre-back Alderweireld simply played striker, and our guys had to score the fourth goal and close the game. And we started to dry the game, which we don't really know how to do," SportArena quoted Kosyrin as saying .