The double is a special achievement

– On Saturday, you won the title and now the Cup. Describe your current emotions.
– Strong emotions. Of course, winning the double in these competitions is an amazing achievement for all of us. Like I said, I am very proud of everyone at the club, and especially my players, who did a tremendous job during the season. I think, given the way we played, we deserved both of these titles. I am a very happy person today.

– Unexpectedly, Heorhii Sudakov was not included in the squad list for the match. Considering that he is one of the key players of Ukraine national team, we would like to hear about the nature of his injury and the approximate time of his return.
– Unfortunately, Heorhii was injured in the last training session before the game. But I also have good news – it is not a serious injury. He is out for two weeks maximum. He is very fit, he played in all the games, and I am sure that he will be ready for the European Championship. And this is good news. It was unfortunate for us, because we could not use Sudakov in this match, but the team made great efforts, and the guys managed to replace him. I am pleased with that. Do not worry about Sudakov, he will be able to help Ukraine national team during Euro.

– Mister, congratulations on the victory! What is your main football dream at Shakhtar – now and for the future?
– Actually, the main football dream came true today – to win two titles with Shakhtar. All of us, and I as a coach, are very proud of this. Further, the main dream is to keep on going like this. To win the double in the first year is a very special achievement, and I am very happy about it.

– Did Vorskla surprise you? If so, how exactly?
– Not at all. We know how they play, we know about the details that they always change, but we reacted pretty well, it was OK. In my opinion, when you play any final, it is all about winning. I think we controlled the game most of the time, had more ball possession. Both teams had few chances in the first half. We knew that the opponent would play with close defence and use counterattacks. In one such episode, we made a mistake, but a good save helped us. But we played well on the ball, and in the second half, even better. I think we could have scored two or three more goals in the second half. Nothing surprised us, because we have already played with them, properly analysed them, we are able to quickly adapt to a certain situation on the pitch, if there are any changes. But there were no major differences compared to the first game. Almost everything was similar. Only their wingers stood wider this time – in the first game they played more inside. But it is a detail, nothing more.

– Shakhtar has two more matches in this season. Do you plan to involve internationals in these games or will there be a rotation?
– There will be, but I do not know to what extent exactly. I have to think about it, of course, because we have a lot of players, and some have not played that much but worked very hard, so they also deserve the playing time. I will think about it tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Now the most important thing is that we won the Cup, and we are going to celebrate it. And, yes, there will still be rotation.

– I want to congratulate you from the city of Rivne on the title and the Cup – this is a great achievement for the team and for you as a coach. We wish you to surpass Dynamo Kyiv in the victories in the UPL in the following years.
– Thank you! Someone asked me this question last time, and I said that I do not care about the number of titles other teams have. I know it is an interesting moment, but the most important thing for me is that we win the titles. And how many? I hope that many. And if this detail is important, and it probably is, then I am very happy about it. So we will keep working, and hopefully we will win even more titles in the future.

– Congratulations on the victory! The team won two titles. And are there any matches this season that you would like to forget as soon as possible?
– None. Because we always played very well. Maybe there could be some details in certain parts of the game that we would like to change, but I will tell you this: when we lost to Dnipro-1, I think, it was actually one of the best halves we played. So at that moment I said that football is not always a fair game, because we played very well then. And I think that later we made up for it and in the second match against Polissia we played even better than in the first one, and we drew 0-0. This result was emotional, because it is very difficult to perceive: you think only if you win it is good. I have to say that we have constantly played football at a high level all season – in Europe and in national competitions. And of course there are parts of the halves that I can say I do not like, there are always details where you could have played better and that you need to improve, but if you look at our performances from the first game against Barcelona, when I arrived, and to the last one, they were at a pretty high level, which we achieved together.