Former Ukraine national team player Oleg Shelayev assessed the game of Donetsk’s «Shakhtar» in the match against «Bayern» (1:5) in the 6th round of the main stage of the Champions League.
Oleg Shelayev (photo: fcdnister.com)— What were your expectations for this game?
— Alarmed. We all remember the recent match against PSV «Eindhoven», and «Bayern» is much stronger than the team from the Netherlands. Moreover, the away match for the Munich team took place in Germany, albeit in Gelsenkirchen. Yes, we know that seven players from the main squad of «Bayern» were absent, which is quite a lot, but the bench of this club is quite long. To be frank — the depth of the squad that Vincent Kompany has is impressive.
— Already in the 5th minute of the game, Kevin opened the scoring in this confrontation.
— This was not some kind of fantasy. We saw a quick goal from the «miners» in Eindhoven as well. This is just one episode. Then the players of «Bayern» played from a position of strength.
— Could our guys develop the success?
— No. It’s hard to count on success when all your 11 players are near your own penalty area. It’s difficult to run 70 meters at high speed to reach «Bayern's» goal and score. Only one such moment did the orange-black have at the 44th minute of the meeting, I’m talking about Sudakov’s chance.
— Was everything decided by the pressing of «Bayern» in this match? They constantly forced the «Shakhtar» players to make mistakes.
— The football of «Shakhtar» was very comfortable for «Bayern». The Donetsk team played the ball in their own half, and the Germans took it away and immediately rushed into our penalty area, taking shots at Riznyk's goal.
— What did Sudakov want to do to be useful? He often tried to dribble past opponents near his own goal.
— He tried to be unrestrained. You can see that he is showing himself off. It’s clear that Georgiy is the team leader and he needs to stand out somehow. If you only stand in defense, it’s hard to do that. So when he received the ball, he tried to break out of defense by dribbling. Perhaps this is also the head coach's instruction.
— How did he not score a goal into the unprotected corner of the goal in the 44th minute of the meeting?
— As I understand it, after Kevin's pass he wanted to hit the corner of the goal precisely. In such episodes, one just needs to hit the target — let the goalkeeper save his team. Sudakov’s fixation played a cruel trick on him.
— And here again the old football adage worked: you don't score — they score against you. Do you agree?
— Yes. In my youth, our coach used to tell me and my teammates: «If you haven’t scored in a clear goal moment, you need to play carefully for about 10 minutes to prevent that episode from backfiring». Marlon made a mistake here, of course. But before that, Riznyk had started to play the ball in the early phase of this attack. Immediately after the goal, I noticed Sikan's reaction, who ran to Riznyk and started saying something to him. Apparently, it would have been better to just clear the ball to the center of the field from the goalkeeper.
— A telling moment in the game occurred in the 48th minute when during a corner from «Shakhtar», Kryskiv continued the ball to the far post, where Bondar, being a meter from the goal, failed to get a foot in and redirect the ball into the empty net. And Müller, who was behind him, swept the ball away in a tackle. And this is a forward who has won dozens of trophies in his career.
— Yes, a telling episode. Of course, Bondar wanted to score there, making the score 2:2. But there are players in «Bayern» who have special qualities. In terms of the desire to fight, to play to the end in any episode, the Germans have no equal. Their team play is such that there’s no point in even discussing it.
— After the penalty, the outcome of the meeting was no longer in doubt for everyone?
— Undoubtedly. The game was rolling towards its logical conclusion. «Shakhtar» practically had no counterplay in the second half. To be fair, I’ll say that the penalty awarded in that episode was invalid, that’s my opinion.
— Why can’t any of our footballers play cleanly in ball recovery?
— This needs to be learned from a young age. There’s a tactic of small fouls. During the last ball, which was ridiculously scored by Olisey, a hard foul could also have been made. I believe that one player should not be allowed to outplay half the team and just watch it; a foul should have been made before your own penalty area.
— After the match, fans of «Shakhtar» on the internet are calling for Pushich to resign. What do you say about this?
— Of course, fans will pour their negativity onto the head coach, provoking him. The head coach impacts the team's play and its results. That’s always how it is. But fans do not make the final decision; the management of Donetsk «Shakhtar» decides everything here. My opinion is that Pushich needs to resign, and he himself has indirectly spoken about this in a recent interview. Perhaps Pushich has already exhausted himself morally, perhaps this is not his team. But it should be noted that Marino Pushich is coaching the team during a very difficult time for Ukraine.
— Do you think that this Champions League campaign could be the last for the Ukrainian champion in the coming years? Maybe the Conference League is our level?
— Here I totally agree. Football life is cyclical. We are returning to the 90s when our Ukrainian champion heroically fought through to the Champions League group stages via qualification. We literally clawed out victories and won points for the coefficient table. Currently, our football has returned to 30 years ago. We are in a starting position, like in 1994.
