Andriy Shakhov: "I didn't think there would be such hopelessness in matches with clubs from the top championships"

Famous journalist Andrey Shakhov commented on the outcome of the Europa League match between Hoffenheim and Dynamo.

"When I started calculating the possible points after the calendar was published, I accepted that Dynamo would start the tournament with defeats. And there will be not two, but three defeats at the start (we play the third match in Rome against Roma). However, I still didn't think that the matches with clubs from the top championships would be so hopeless. I thought there would be at least some chances to catch up.

Unfortunately, there were no chances either against Lazio (0:3 before the break) or against Hoffenheim. We conceded fewer goals, but you must admit that the home team had a big advantage in the game. The score of shots - 19:8 (6:1 on target, 11:2 from outside the penalty area), moments (3:0) - is the best confirmation of this. The Ukrainians in the attack were remembered only for the long-range shots of Brazhko and Shaparenko. In defense and in the support area, they made another batch of mistakes, sometimes unnecessary.

"Dynamo and Shakhtar scored only one point in four matches, never scoring and conceding eight goals. The statistics are terrible. The leaders of our football are giving up. However, there is another objective reason for the failures. Traveling for almost a day affects the players: their mood, condition, emotions. Fatigue accumulates, and recovery becomes more difficult. I have no idea how the guys manage to recover on trains and buses! In addition, our teams play their home games abroad, not at their home stadiums. Ukrainian clubs are in obviously worse conditions than all their rivals! Let's also take this into account.

I really hope that the upcoming break for national team matches will allow the players to rest, gain strength and bring back the game we saw in the Champions League qualifiers. We need to add everywhere: "Dynamo makes a lot of mistakes in defense, loses the middle of the field, and has stopped creating chances in attack. "Ferencvaros and Viktoria, whom we play at home after Roma, can be beaten despite all the difficulties. But for this we need a quality game!" the Bankova Mail telegram channel quotes Shakhov as saying.