The head coach of Donetsk Shakhtar, Marino Puzhych, shared his expectations for today’s match of his team against Munich’s Bayern in the 6th round of the Champions League group stage.
“There’s no need to specifically motivate the players for such matches. When you face one of the best clubs in the world, that in itself is motivation. Of course, I will tell the team a couple of things about how to conduct this game and what to do, but I believe everyone already has high motivation playing in the Champions League, especially against such opponents. Therefore, the match itself is already a motivation.
I believe in my team. Everything good starts with believing in it. In my opinion, we have played many matches in the Champions League — both in the previous format and in this one — where we have shown certain qualities and level of play. Of course, when you are up against teams with incredible qualities, you need to be not only 100 percent focused, but everything should be on 100 percent, almost perfect, in order to achieve a good result.
But, as I said, we are eagerly waiting for such matches because playing them is a fantastic feeling, to challenge one of the best teams in the world, to also show ourselves. And we will try to do this by sticking to our philosophy. When I talk about our philosophy, in fact, it’s about how we always play — regardless of which opponent we are facing at that moment, we will strive. We are looking forward to the game, and I am very confident in my players, especially in their character and in how they want to show themselves.
But we must be perfect in everything when playing against such opponents, and everyone on the field must be fantastic in all aspects. As I said, it’s a great match, a great challenge for us. We are a team that has nothing to lose; we can only win in these matches. And we will certainly try to do this,” said Puzhych at the pre-match press conference.