Metalurh head coach Nikolay Kostov commenced his postmatch communication with the match analysis.

  — First of all, I’d like to congratulate Shakhtar with their today’s victory. One and all the players of my team were doing their best. And for now it was the lack of experience that let us down. And Shakhtars are very experienced. I think this was the cornerstone of today’s match. As for the game, we didn’t play any worse than our rivals did. I repeat, we were doing our best to beat Shakhtar. We will look ahead and keep on participating in the Championship. We’ll do all we can to do us justice. I think our team can oppose even the strongest rivals in the Championship and be their principal competitor. We also highly appreciate our supporters’ attending the matches, for football is a game for fans, but, unfortunately, not all of them come to the stadium. We had a tough match today, but it was also a dynamic one at the same time. 

— Could you please comment on Kingsley and Dimitrov substitutions?
— I think they didn’t quite play up to our expectations. Those were routine substitutions resulting from the lack of activity. Godin and Soares, who has yet to adapt to the weather conditions and Championship specifics, tuned in with the game. But still we were defeated… I guess we lack this something.

— Your team outnumbered the rivals after Luiz Adriano got sent off. You didn’t have enough time to level the score, did you?
— On what minute was he sent off? On 84 minute? No, we didn’t have enough time.

— You have two important fixtures to go through, the first with Dynamo and the second one with Shakhtar in Ukrainian Cup semifinal. What are your expectations from these encounters?
  — We are expecting only victories. And not only in games against Shakhtar and Dynamo, but also in clashes with other rivals. We only play to win, regardless of the weather conditions. We create a team only with such mentality. 

FC Shakhtar
Press Office