U21. Shakhtar vs Volyn: players’ views

- The opponents filled midfield, dropped down their half and built their play around defending and playing on the counter. We methodically shattered those defensive actions, sending the ball back and forth across the pitch, to make some open spaces for our players to break in and create scoring chances. After scoring the opener, it got a bit easier for us. We knew that Lutsk would charge forward to try to equalize, with us having more opportunities to score the second and third goals. In the second half, we appeared enjoying a major lead, so the coaching staff made some changes and allowed us to experiment a bit on the pitch: to master new connections, set pieces, to try one-twos and getting past the opponents. Many things worked, with some other stuff still requiring improvement. We should step it up in every training session and match, to attain today’s result in every game.

- It was tough until scoring the first goal. We knew that all Volyn players would play defensively, try not to concede any goals. We had to score as early as possible to make them expose themselves. It’s good that my connection to the corner kick helped the team: we opened the scoring and then quickly netted the second and third goals. We left for the break having good goal difference and started the second half in a great mood. We realized that we had to score more goals, keeping a clean sheet at the same time. After the break, we tried new moves, trying to find open spaces in the opposing defence with our long balls, attacking in different ways and eventually deservedly claimed a major victory. I am glad that we approached the match with the proper concentration and kept it until the end of the game – that’s exactly what the coach had asked us to do. It can be felt that the team improve their performance from game to game.