Head coach of Donetsk Shakhtar, Marino Pushich, shared his thoughts on the 10-point deficit of his team from the current leader of the Ukrainian championship, Kyiv Dynamo.
“This is a fact, we cannot deny it, but I explained earlier how this happens. It is more of a challenge and motivation than pressure. In general, I do not believe in pressure.
Let me explain: I believe that a soldier in war has pressure to survive, to have three children without enough money to feed them—that's existential pressure. In such cases, we can talk about pressure. I am convinced that in football and in sports in general, there is no such thing.
I believe in ambitions and attitude, and these are different things. And besides ambitions, I also believe in challenges. And this is undoubtedly a challenge for us, there is no doubt about it; however, we accepted this challenge with the ambition to catch up with our rivals, to be competitive and to try to win the championship. I am very determined and motivated, just like the rest of the team, to act as I have just described to you,” Pushich’s words are cited by the official website of Shakhtar.