Braga vs Shakhtar: Pitmen’s comments

- Braga needed a victory, so the match turned out to be tough for both teams. The opponents tried to put pressure in our half of the field, but Shakhtar players’ higher skill level was decisive. We also figured out the tactics used by the Portuguese side. Paulo Fonseca said before the meeting that we had a unique opportunity to complete the group stage with a perfect result. And we were preparing to claim the win only. With regard to the line-up: the lads fielded today have shown that they are ready to play at Shakhtar. I managed to score a brace, being the third in my career. In the past, I used to score doubles when playing for Ukraine U19. So this is my festival. However, nothing would have happened without great assists by the teammates. Plus in training, we regularly practise set pieces, and this time some of our moves have borne fruit.

- The game turned out to be combative, the audience witnessed numerous goals. Braga allowed us to create scoring chances and the score could have been even bigger. But we made some finishing erros and didn’t convert a number of great opportunities. Before the match, Paulo Fonseca prepared us for winning only. He said that regardless of the line-up fielded, we had come here to win. He also said this: Shakhtar will not make any concessions for Braga only because he had coached the team before. As for the match itself, I think, everything got cleat after our third goal. We had a game plan – to confidently operate defensively and not allow the opponents to score an early goal. When we opened the scoring, the Portuguese charged forward to reduce the deficit, with us gaining more open spaces. Fortunately, we managed to take advantage of that several times. We are glad to have claimed the win. But we’ve still got no time to relax. We are facing a closing game this year, which we must win.

- Today I had more work to do than in the previous meeting against Konyaspor. But that’s all right. I think I have managed to prove myself, still giving away an unnecessary goal in the end. For this I want to apologise to the guys. I will try in the future to work even harder and to prevent such errors. What is memorable in the group stage? Primarily the fact that the team claimed the maximum points, showcasing some decent football in every game. Now, we are approaching the game vs Dynamo in a great mood. In my opinion, the match should be interesting.