The former forward of 'Shakhtar' and the Ukrainian national team, Andriy Vorobey, shared his expectations for the match of the 11th round of the Ukrainian championship 'Dynamo' — 'Shakhtar'.
"Personally, I expect good football from both teams, which have good performers. Not what they have been demonstrating lately, but I want to see the football that everyone has been waiting for.
How are both teams performing on the European stage? So far, we are failing in the European cups, to put it mildly. We need to accept this. 'Shakhtar' and 'Dynamo' have not scored a single goal in three rounds of the Champions League and Europa League. This is a crisis. For now, we are still very weak in Europe. There are no results, there is no game. Someone might say that 'Shakhtar' and 'Dynamo' lost by one goal, but all these teams played for the score, focusing on their championships. When 'Shakhtar' has a miserable number of shots in all three Champions League matches.
I don’t think 'Shakhtar' will come up with anything, using the usual scheme. They will play their football. It seems to me that 'Shakhtar' will dominate, 'Dynamo' will retreat, trying to play on counterattacks during interceptions. If 'Shakhtar' takes a long time to play in the opponent's half — there will be no use. The 'miners' need to play from the first minutes as they did in the last 15 minutes against 'Arsenal'.
Considering the logistics, 'Shakhtar' got a few extra days to recover. Of course, the realities of war leave their mark. The logistics have complicated. To bridge the gap between the championship and the European cups, motivation must be found within the UPL to demonstrate quality football. I see that teams are walking on foot. In the European cups, you can’t play like this, even if you have traveled 1500–2000 km. Physicality must be present, character, desire. Our giants lack this. For a player, it's not helpful when you are in good shape, the game is on, and you get benched. Then you come on and don't know if the game will go well or not. The game will show how right Shovkovskiy was.
As a person who cares about the future of 'Shakhtar', it saddens me to see that the team is not showing its level. Currently, 'Dynamo' is the favorite in terms of game conditions. Although the leaders of Kyiv did not play from the first minutes against 'Roma', the accumulated fatigue from travel and less recovery time play into 'Shakhtar's' hands to an extent. 'Dynamo' has an advantage due to their tournament position. Individually, the players of 'Shakhtar' are stronger. 'Dynamo' excels in team play. 'Shakhtar' has fingers, but no fist. 'Dynamo' has a single fist present in team actions. If 'Dynamo' wins, then the question of the championship will be removed by 90%," said Vorobey.