Renowned Ukrainian coach Oleg Fedorchuk shared his impressions of the Europa League play-off return match for the right to reach the last 16 of the tournament between French side Marseille and Shakhtar Donetsk (3-1), which took place last Thursday at the Provence ground. The Miners failed to qualify for the next round of the competition on the basis of the two games (2:2, 1:3).
Олег Федорчук"Marseille's victory should be recognised as well-deserved. Yes, the Donetsk team scored a quick goal, but for the sake of fairness, it should be clarified that it was from a dubious penalty. However, somewhere in the middle of the first half, it was felt that Shakhtar had no strength reserve, that their functional training was lame... I have always emphasised: "You can't deceive muscles".
A similar picture was observed after the 60th minute. This is where the lack of coaching experience of the guest manager Marino Pušić, who, unlike his French counterpart, was clearly late in making substitutions, became apparent. It's one thing to be a manager and quite another to be an assistant.
Although it was evident that Artem Bondarenko and Irakli Azarov were not performing well, that Oleksandr Zubkov was lacking initiative, and that Taras Stepanenko was hanging on with his last legs. And fatigue led to a loss of concentration and mistakes, which the hosts skilfully exploited.
But the worst thing is that I didn't see how the Pitmen were going to win, although the Marseille team didn't show anything extraordinary. It was clear that the hosts were not yet in optimum fitness and their long winless streak was not accidental. It was only yesterday that the ice finally broke with Shakhtar's help.
"The Pitmen were helpless in the martial arts, often losing on the second floor, and allowed the opposition to score as many as 18 shots on goal. So what can we take as a credit?" KOMANDA1 quotes Fedorchuk as saying.
