Great football
Saturday, May 4, 2019
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Shakhtar manager Paulo Fonseca reflects on thrashing Lviv, the players’ responsible attitude, the state of Pyatov and Stepanenko, as well as Bondar’s debut appearance
- I will try to speak quickly: there are so many reporters here today that, I’m sure, many questions will follow ... The excellent performance of ours, great football. We started really well, in the first half we had six clear-cut scoring opportunities, but we didn’t convert them. In the second half of the meeting, we managed to score more goals. In general, we fully dominated it. I must say that before today, Lviv only twice suffered away defeats in the league, conceding only seven goals. Today, we’ve netted five against them. So we had a great match and deserved the victory, and the score could have been different. Congratulations to my players who approached the match very seriously.
- Please tell us about the state of Pyatov and Stepanenko. What to do with a series of injuries?
- They got those injuries after hits. Pyatov is still not training, while Stepanenko conducted only one session yesterday. I decided to bring Taras to the match and leave him on the bench just in case we would need him to appear. At 3-0, I thought that there was no need to take risks. We will watch the recovery and we hope that this will happen as soon as possible.
- How well did Tete fit into the team?
- I am satisfied with absolutely all the players - both those who appeared in the starting XI and those who came on as subs. It’s very difficult to individualize and talk about just one footballer when everyone proved themselves up to the mark. I want to congratulate everyone.
- Today, the Academy graduate Valerii Bondar made his debut ...
- This is another young player we’ve fielded. It’s clear that he is not the right-back. Bondar trained in this role sometimes. Valerii always pushes himself to the limit, trying very hard, and we decided to give him a bonus - to play for the first team of Shakhtar. He really deserved it with his dedication.
- Please tell us about the state of Pyatov and Stepanenko. What to do with a series of injuries?
- They got those injuries after hits. Pyatov is still not training, while Stepanenko conducted only one session yesterday. I decided to bring Taras to the match and leave him on the bench just in case we would need him to appear. At 3-0, I thought that there was no need to take risks. We will watch the recovery and we hope that this will happen as soon as possible.
- How well did Tete fit into the team?
- I am satisfied with absolutely all the players - both those who appeared in the starting XI and those who came on as subs. It’s very difficult to individualize and talk about just one footballer when everyone proved themselves up to the mark. I want to congratulate everyone.
- Today, the Academy graduate Valerii Bondar made his debut ...
- This is another young player we’ve fielded. It’s clear that he is not the right-back. Bondar trained in this role sometimes. Valerii always pushes himself to the limit, trying very hard, and we decided to give him a bonus - to play for the first team of Shakhtar. He really deserved it with his dedication.