Mircea Lucescu: We won ‘cause we had confidence in our being the best

10-05-12 23:00:18

 

After winning the league title at the Donbass Arena, FC Shakhtar head coach spoke to journalists. Alexandru Spiridon traditionally helped him with the translation. And representatives of the media immediately started asking questions.

- Congratulations on your victory, Mister. And you, Alexandru. Could you briefly sum up the results of this premiership?
- Thank you. I can say that winning the championship is becoming increasingly difficult. Our opponents also grow continuously, and in the next championship they will try to get closer to us, approaching the pace that we have set. It was a difficult league season. We were almost constantly falling behind Dynamo Kyiv. It was very hard. And it was difficult to regain the lost points. We have won this championship because we had confidence in our being the best, and showed it in every game. There were, of course, some ticklish issues. In particular, the Champions League can be mentioned, since we, unfortunately, did not fulfill the set tasks. There was a problem after the game with Porto, when we had had our two central defenders sent off. We had to decide what to do: to continue in the domestic league with the new pair of central defenders or still deploy those suspended. It was a big problem for us. But we approached every league game with peak enthusiasm. Initially, our objective was to catch up with Dynamo... We were always confident that we would make it through this difficult time in the Champions League - unfortunately, we didn’t make it any further. I'm glad though that we did it in the top flight. Naturally, the desire to become the champions was kindled by the thought to immediately progress to the Champions League group stage. We belong to the Champions League only. After our confident win over APOEL, all of us thought that our place was taken by another team. We were supposed to be in there. It was a challenge: we used to play every spring in the Champions League, but in the recent case we had to play just once a week - solely in the premiership. Major sides maintained their form by playing two games per week. That wasn’t enough for us. In a way, it was difficult to tune in for the next game over the course of six days. The same thing happened from match to match. But we've finally succeeded, and we are delighted that we are the title holders again. It was difficult after the accident I had been involved in – I followed the winter camp developments and felt that something was missing there, the quality trainings notwithstanding. Then I decided to fly back to the players earlier for the guys to feel that I was there with them. Ultimately, we delivered the goods. It was the right decision. I want to say once again that we are delighted at winning both the league title and the cup. Certainly, in the future we also want to win the Super Cup to prove once again that we are the strongest Ukrainian team. Of course, I want to thank all the lads, all the staff for the fact that they really tuned into the very beat of it. They understood that certain changes were made, with the staff rotation taking place. Everyone treated it properly, so I'm very happy. By virtue of the rotation, we let everyone feel involved in the common cause, and most importantly – to retain the optimum form. Anyone could be brought on and nobody would notice the substitution. As today, for instance: there was a whole bunch of players: Shevchuk, Hubschman, Seleznyov, Eduardo. I gave them the opportunity to play, so that they could feel fit enough to defend their national teams’ colours at the European Championships. For me it is very important that our team players will take part in the UEFA EURO 2012, representing their country and FC Shakhtar. The strength of our team is in their spirit without exception, plus the established squad. Let's hope for the same progress, and for some great wins still awaiting us.

- Mister, we have seen today all the Ukrainian team players capped by Blokhin, except Taras Stepanenko. Their current run of form is pretty decent when watching from the stands. How would you assess it?
- It’s always hard to evaluate our side’s defensive ability based on today's match, as well as on other games. Even today, when the score was 3-0, the rivals dropped deep in their penalty area and, by and large, no tasks were intended for our defenders and the goalkeeper. I can point out that it was attacking our central defenders looked very good at. It is difficult to say how they will look like when an opposing team charges more. And it's probably going to happen. But the fact is that they looked good in attack and pretty much reliable in defense. And I must admit that we should give the opposition the credit for delivering just few shots on target. That’s worth mentioning.

- Mister, what will you change in the next season’s Shakhtar?
- We will keep an eye on the players who have been here for just a short while – the likes of Dentinho and Alan Patrick. Chygrynskiy has been experiencing some hard times... I am most interested in those of our players who have not yet shown their full potential. It’s not easy to understand our game and to meet its standards.

- Alexandru Fedorovych, have you already forgiven Alexandr Aliyev?
Alexandru Spiridon: I didn’t take offense at him. I think he has drawn some conclusions for himself to be man enough in the future.

FC Shakhtar
Press Office

 

Andriy Kuptsov: Shakhtar deservedly won

10-05-12 23:05:59
Oleksandriia’s caretaker head coach reflected on today’s game.

- First and foremost, I would like to congratulate Shakhtar on the victory. They deservedly won the Ukrainian League and the Ukrainian Cup. I wish this club continued success both domestically and internationally. As for today's game, such factors as the team’s class, skill, experience and many other different aspects impacted on the result. We knew where we were coming to, against whom we were going to play. We knew that Shakhtar needed a victory to become champions. We tried to motivate our players but, unfortunately, our skill is not as high as that of Shakhtar. The same could be said about our expertise. 

FC Shakhtar
Press Office