Former forward of Kyiv’s Dynamo Viktor Leonenko shared his thoughts on the draw between Shakhtar and Finnish Ilves (0:0) in the first round of the Europa League qualifiers.
Viktor Leonenko— Viktor Yevhenovych, what do you say about the return match with Ilves?
— After the first match, for Shakhtar, it was a training game, but such an opponent needed to be beaten in any case, even with substitutes. I don’t know, maybe Shakhtar’s players were under heavy loads or just became complacent. There can be many options.
The funniest thing is that Turan wants Dynamo to never win anything, while he can’t even beat the bathers.
— We have a sad situation in the UEFA coefficient table, and now we are not gaining points against such an opponent. Earlier, Shakhtar started in the group in European competitions, but now they are going through qualification from the first round.
— Well, it’s normal. With such a level of the championship, they should generally start from the Conference League. Hardly Turan thought about coefficients. The main thing is that we got through, and coefficients are already a nice bonus, especially at this stage they give a lot and not many.
Turan can safely say that after the first game with Ilves, Shakhtar has already begun preparing for Besiktas. Perhaps that’s the case, and he was afraid that the players would get injured.
Why bother if there are two serious matches ahead? Moreover, try to make the Brazilians do something if everything was decided in the first game.
— What are your expectations for the match between Shakhtar and Besiktas?
— Besiktas, I see, is already making bold statements. They probably think that Shakhtar will come to them the same way they were last season in the UPL. But I hope we will see a different Shakhtar in Istanbul. For Turan, the main thing now is Besiktas. He can lose to everyone, but he must definitely beat a principled opponent.
— What awaits Shakhtar in the new UPL season?
— Shakhtar shouldn’t leave anyone a chance in our championship, despite the fact that Bondar continues to play in the Donetsk team. The Brazilians have warmed up, there are definitely two good ones — it’s Kevin and Alisson.
Andriy Piskun
