Shakhtar Donetsk head coach Marino Pusic told what he expects from his team's away match against Italian side Bologna in the first leg of the Champions League first leg.
Marino Pušić"I never single out individual performers, for me it is the team and the team style of play that is important. Last season Bologna as a team played at a very high level. We are expecting a match of the highest level in the strongest club tournament in Europe.
At this level, as I emphasized, there can not be any personalities, but in terms of specific performers, I can name Karlsson, with whom I had an interesting experience of cooperation in AZ. Also, of course, I know most of the Croatians representing the team, well, I have not passed by the experience of working in the Dutch championship, so the local Dutch players are not alien to me either.
For me, this is a tournament of the highest level, where the chances of the teams are always 50/50 - and that's what great soccer is all about. And in our match the odds are also equal. Of course, some top clubs can be singled out, but now soccer has reached a qualitatively new level and all teams start the match with zero goals scored. Therefore, the chances of the opponents in our match are equal, everything will be decided on the pitch.
The new format of the Champions League requires a new approach to every game from any opponent. I believe that this format should first be tried out in practice to make a certain impression. According to the words, of course, a completely new approach is expected - if only in the fact that now we have to prepare for a much larger number of opponents.
As for our attitude to the game and our approach, nothing will change significantly in preparation for our opponents, we will prepare thoroughly for each match and give our best. I think this match will be a great opportunity for us as a team to check how much the format has changed. And after the first few games in the new format of the Champions League, we will be able to draw conclusions about how much the planning of the approach to the opponent has changed.
Shakhtar's chances in this Champions League? Of course, certain resources may assess our chances as not very good, and most of all it is influenced by the current circumstances: the situation in Ukraine and all the difficulties the team faces when playing under such circumstances. But for me it doesn't matter what they say before the tournament or before the match. Many who make such predictions do not have a full picture of what is going on inside the team and how effectively we have been working lately. You can remember the previous season of the Champions League, where we managed to show ourselves at a very high level and fought to the last for the playoffs.
I must honestly admit that I can agree with the experts who estimate our chances not very high, but I also know that everything is decided directly on the soccer field. This is a new season, a new chance and a new opportunity to prove that all the preliminary calculations may be wrong. Everything depends only on us. That's why we are waiting for the match and preparing hard," said Pušić at the pre-match press conference.
