Olimpik vs Shakhtar: Pitmen’s comments

- It’s difficult to talk about the reasons for the outcome. We try to win every game, but we resist the team, being opposed by the teams who just completely park the bus. Ten men of Olimpik defended and waited for an opportunity to play on the counter in order to score. At 1-0 in our favour, they succeeded. Sometimes it happens. We must be watchful next time to prevent anything like that. All in all, we controlled the game nearly throughout. Unfortunately, we could not create many chances... Frankly speaking, the pitch was poor today. We tried to accelerate it, but either the turf condition or our passing inaccuracy complicated this task. Our strength is quick handling of the ball down on the surface. It’s much more difficult to do on such pitches. Of course, we are upset now. But we still go ahead of Dynamo, let’s see how they play the game against Chornomorets. We still have that cushion. And we must be more careful in the future.

- At the end of the match, we lost concentration and conceded an unnecessary goal. Although in general, we succeeded in the game. Most of the time, Shakhtar had control of the ball, but one ridiculous counterattack by the opponents cost us a win. We created many scoring chances, but finishing failed us. I think we need to work more on this component, then everything will be fine. As for the opponents, they defended well. Olimpik tried to drop below the ball line, and they were successful at that. Also, the pitch turf was not top quality: it did not allow us to have control of the ball for long and beat the opponents. On this kind of pitch, it is a lot easier to defend than to attack. We knew that the game would be difficult and Olimpik would fight. Moreover, they were well aware that we never stumbled, and very much liked to score against us and beat us. It is frustrating to concede goals in the dying minutes, so we should be more careful. Never mind, we are facing next games. We will be correcting ourselves.