Igor JOVICEVIC: “We could have made the score 2-2”

Shakhtar Donetsk head coach Igor Jovicevich commented on the defeat to Real Madrid (1:2) in the third round match of the Champions League group stage.

“I think there are many Shakhtar fans among those fighting for Ukraine’s freedom right now. What we can do for them is less. It is to give you a reason to be proud of yourself by showing your competitiveness. I think Shakhtar fans today are proud of how we played and survived to some extent.

The match in Warsaw next week will bring many Ukrainian fans together. It won’t be easy, but we have to show our worth. We will try to win and again the key to success will be fierce resistance. Undoubtedly we have young talented players, we played well here so we can continue to surprise other teams as we did with Leipzig and Celtic.

Real Madrid deserved it, they could have scored more and we accept that. But we played bravely, took risks and in the end we not only lost by a margin, we could have made the score 2:2. We need to place ourselves in the notion that if we play like this against the strongest, we can achieve more in matches with lower tier teams.

For us it’s an experience. We got lost in the opposing combinations because they have no equal in this regard. At first, you could see my players were a little nervous. This resulted in us not being able to complete even a few simple passes and in the game against Real Madrid this is deadly,” says Jovićević.