The head coach of Donetsk “Shakhtar” Marino Pushich spoke about what he expects from his team’s match against the French “Brest” in the 7th round of the main stage of the Champions League.
Marino Pushich“We are eagerly awaiting the official game. Although this is the first official match of the year and right at the level of the Champions League, we are very glad to play it.
As you know, we are starting our performances in the domestic championship on February 24, so there is still a long way to go before that. Therefore, the first part of our off-season was focused on this game and the next meeting — with “Borussia” (Dortmund). This is not an ideal situation because, as you know, we have not had official matches before the Champions League match, like “Brest,” which seems to have had four matches, so we currently lack the complexity of real official matches. We are trying to compensate for this in friendlies, which is not so easy and perfect.
But I have seen a team that is very demanding and wants to achieve something, to develop. We have worked very hard, and as I already said, this game is on a big stage against a very tough opponent, so we are looking forward to it.
“Brest” is a very serious opponent, a team that is very difficult to beat. They didn’t just gather a lot of points in the Champions League. It will be a very challenging game. How we will try to turn it to our advantage at this level depends on the details. Of course, we have a game plan, but as I said, it will be very hard because they also play well in defense, have powerful fast players, and are a team that is hard to beat in all aspects. So we need to be in the best shape to achieve a good result,” Pushich said at the pre-match press conference.
