Former Kyiv Dynamo forward Viktor Leonenko shared his impressions of the 3rd round match of the Conference League group stage between Shakhtar Donetsk and Icelandic Breidablik (2:0).
Viktor Leonenko
— I don’t even know which league to place Breidablik in, or as I called them, judging by the game, «The Preliminaries.» Even in our championship, there are no such weak teams. This isn’t even the First League. Some coaches like to say there are no weak teams in European competitions, but Preliminaries and Zrinski showed that’s not true. And these are the champions of their countries. Imagine now how everyone else plays. It’s comforting that there are teams even weaker than ours.
Congratulations to Shakhtar for the win, but it would have been nice to see more goals, like in Dynamo. Suddenly, in the end, goals scored might count. Shakhtar won their victory walking, without even breaking a sweat. Shakhtar played two halves on the opponent’s field. There’s nothing even to analyze here.
— Turan changed nine players after the match with Dynamo. As with the Legia match, a semi-duplicate lineup was fielded. Does this mean Shakhtar is focusing on the UPL and doesn’t care about the Conference League?
— I don’t think Shakhtar has no goals in the Conference League. Why even participate then? Furthermore, there’s nowhere else for us to play with our defense. When we talk about Shakhtar, we mean Akhmetov, and Rinat Leonidovich taught everyone that the club has one task — to take first place in all tournaments, whether it succeeds or not — that’s another matter.
Turan continues to change players by the dozen. We’ve never seen such coaches! Even Chelsea, when they bought a billion worth of players, didn’t change them by the dozen. Although, against Preliminaries, they could have fielded U-19. On one hand, it’s good that Turan lets everyone play, but the question arises for me: has he found the main lineup or not? Even Shved plays under Turan, who «delighted» everyone in the match against Legia. I don’t understand at all what he’s playing.
— Why did Turan only make two substitutions during the match with Breidablik?
— Not two, but 11. Don’t forget nine new players started, and he gave the rest a break.
— Didn’t it seem to you that Shakhtar found it very difficult to break Breidablik’s dense defense?
— Not difficult, because Shakhtar beat them walking. When the attack lasts three hours, no one is in a hurry. Essentially, there weren’t even any moments. When Bondarenko scored, that wasn’t a moment.
— To whom would you give the «Player of the Match»?
— To the whole team, because they played to 0. Shakhtar had such a weak opponent that the «Player of the Match» could be given to anyone.
— Will it be harder against Poltava than against Breidablik?
— I don’t think so. It might even be easier if they score a quick goal. Against Poltava, it will also be a warm-up match, since the team is at the bottom, and I’m not sure they are stronger than Preliminaries, although they gave Kryvbas a hard time. The main thing is that Shakhtar players don’t get conceited.
Andriy Piskun
