Andrei Shakhov: "Partizan" left a very strange impression. To be more precise, it made no impression at all"

Famous Ukrainian journalist Andriy Shakhov shared his opinion about the game of the nearest rival of Dynamo Kyiv in the 2nd qualifying round of the Champions League - Partizan Belgrade.

"On Friday I watched Partizan. The first round of the championship, the first, and so far the only, official match. Yes, you can't judge by one match, but what are the options?

"Partizan" left a very strange impression. To be more precise, it made no impression at all. But it's about something else. The team of the first half was not only not like itself in the second half, it even changed beyond recognition during one half.

For example, out of nowhere in the middle of the first 45 minutes they completely gave the initiative to that unfortunate "Napredak". The ball didn't stick, loss after loss. Then they seemed to get the game back.

Next.

In the first half, Partizan lost the ball and immediately went backwards, meeting the opponent at the center line and not trying to take the ball away from Napredak. In the second half, Partizan suddenly turned on high pressing, and in the end did not let the opponent breathe at all, possessing the ball.

Yes, from the middle of the second half Partizan played in the majority. But, here's another disadvantage in the team's game, until the goal scored in extra time, Grobari didn't create a single serious moment at Napredak's goal. Since half-time, they had not threatened the goal at all, not landing a single shot. Moreover, Saldanha's shot was the only shot on goal that Partizan struck in the second half. And in general, it seemed that Partizan simply did not know what to do with the ball and how to break the rich defense of the opponent playing in the minority. By the way, even in the first half, when the Grobarians' advantage was not so total, they practically did not use long passes. Everything through short passes, everything through Arriaga.

Almost the only component that Partizan liked was the one-on-one battles, the ability to play one-on-one.

However, let's take into account that, quite possibly, Partizan were just hiding from Dynamo Kyiv, that the Champions League is a completely different level and different motivation, and against Dynamo we will see a completely different, much stronger and motivated team," Shakhov wrote in the "Shah and Shah" Telegram channel.