Vyacheslav Grozny analyzed Shakhtar’s victory over Leipzig, explained the shortcomings of Dynamo and Dnipro-1, and also shared his expectations from the second round of the European competition.

– Vyacheslav Viktorovych, how would you rate Shakhtar’s debut in the Champions League, namely Pitmen’s confident away victory against Leipzig (4:1)?

– I would like to pay my respects to all three of our teams for their willingness, struggle, dedication, character and fighting qualities in matches with opponents of a very high class. As for Shakhtar, as we’ve all seen, they beat Leipzig away. Pitmen used their trump cards today in this match where Domenico Tedesco was not ready. As a result, after this loss, Tedesco retired and was replaced by Marco Rosa. Regarding the mentor change, I will say that Leipzig conceded four goals against Tedesco (against Eintracht and Shakhtar) in two consecutive matches. Of course, many owners will not tolerate this and even more so than the club management Red Bull system.

– Before this match, many experts complained that Shakhtar, who set the game model of Pitmen, left many players. Except for Traore, all foreigners changed club registrations. What do you think about these transfers and the current Shakhtar?

– I will try to convey this idea to the readers. All three goalkeepers are on the field, including Pyatov and Trubin. Defenders Matvienko, Kryvtsov, Konoplya, defensive midfielder Stepanenko, offensive group players Mudrik and Sikan are constantly invited to the camp of the national team. And by the way, in the Donetsk team there are Bondarenko, Sudakov and a group of players from the country’s youth team at a fairly decent level.

However, it was necessary to pay attention to which direction vector was chosen while completing the team. This is speed in all its manifestations. The speedy Bogdan Mykhailychenko, who transferred from Anderlecht on loan, joined the defence. To the super-reactive 21-year-old Misha Mudrik, players of the Ukrainian national team Oleksandr Zubkov and Ivan Petryak came to the offensive group from the Hungarian Championship. Marian Shved, who previously played for Belgian Mechelen, was added to this company. I would also like to add that 21-year-old Daniil Sikan, who started playing for the national team of Ukraine, moved from Hansa to Shakhtar. Also, the 21-year-old collection of Burkina Faso Lassina Traore, purchased from Ajax, is completely free of injury. With such a very fast selection of players and good dispatchers in the middle of the field, it is most convenient to use the vertical model of play using the empty space perfectly illustrated by Pitmen.

– After such a confident victory in Germany, what are the chances for Shakhtar to successfully play against Celtic and generally solve the main tasks in the group stage of the most prestigious European Cup?

– In the match against Leipzig, the plan outlined by Jovićević and his technical team worked perfectly. It is very important that the game scheme corresponds to the selection of available players. This victory against the German team will psychologically help Shakhtar realize his abilities and above all believe that he will make it to the playoffs from Group F. , which lost to Real Madrid in all articles at home in the first round (0:3). Shakhtar and Real Madrid, who defeated their rivals on the road, rose to the leadership in their quartet. And we Ukrainians really want the table to stay the same after six rounds.

FC Shakhtar

– Dinamo played with the famous Fenerbahçe in the Europa League again and lost 1:2 in Istanbul. How would you rate this confrontation?

– It was extremely difficult for Dinamo to play in Fenerbahçe’s lair once again: 1) It was the Kyiv team that eliminated the super ambitious Canaries from the Champions League qualifiers; 2) Dynamo did not lose six matches to Fenerbahçe (by the way, the people of Kyiv almost never lost to Turkish teams); 3) Fenerbahçe started to reach a common understanding about the game after their matches with Dynamo in the Turkish Championship and European Cup matches; 4) In early September, as a result of his wide selection, the Belgian team, striker Misha Batshuayi, who has already scored 25 goals for his national team, was added to the Turkish grande. The Belgian was bought from Chelsea for 3.5 million euros. 5) and Dynamo players themselves, Besedin, Supryaga, Vanat and some other players could not take part in the match due to their injuries.

– Still, the people of Kyiv were close to getting at least one draw from Turkey. Does this mean that Dinamo knows how to play with this Turkish team?

– Yes, actually Dinamo knows very well how to behave against this Turkish club. This is active pressure, rapid restructuring, mass selection and mutual insurance. Fenerbahce doesn’t really like it being used against them. By playing tightly and in contact, they cannot, let’s say, show their best qualities. They are more comfortable playing free ball. Because the level of his individual techniques is quite high. In this regard, they began to get nervous and at the same time played not only hard, but also quite hard, seriously injuring a number of Dynamo players. Unfortunately, Shaparenko was out for a long time. And Bushchan and the other guys have their problems too. Fenerbahce fans were also obscene. It is surprising that they have escaped so far.

– Do you think the Kyiv team deserved a draw in this match?

Dynamo, who scored the Brazilian Gustavo Enrique’s goal in the 35th minute, started to move faster than his opponent after the break. And finally, at the 63rd minute, the people of Kyiv tied the score with Vitaliy Buyalsky’s elegant individual moves on the left flank, followed by a sharp pass to Viktor Tsygankov. But then Shaparenko was injured and Isa made five substitutions. In my opinion, the match should have ended in a draw. However, Dynamo accepted the ball after the set ball. Substitute Batshuayi brought the victory with Fenerbahçe’s goal in the 92nd minute. With all this, Dynamo behaved with dignity and deserved such a positive result as Dnipro. I think Dnipro-1 looked good in the Conference League match against AZ and also got a real opportunity to earn tournament points.

SC Dnieper-1

– In your opinion, where were the mistakes Dynamo and Dnipro made in these losing matches?

– I would like to draw attention to the movements of the teams in defending their own goals. Of course, ideally I would like players to be able to act in combination inside the penalty area, namely: a) controlling the danger zone; b) controlling the opponent; c) Have your partner insured if necessary. This is theoretical! In fact, everything is much more complicated. Football players must have the highest intelligence to combine these three components. In fact, most teams in Europe and around the world practice a clean zone in their own penalty area. And I am categorically against it. I have a different vision. Here, for example, AZ scored his only and winning goal against team Dnipro after a regular pass from the right of Japanese Sugawara while our defenders were in line. And no one controlled De Wit, who moved towards the ball and sent it to the Dnipro team’s goal. It would be better to check the author of the target! Someone needs to play with the players personally. And the guys played in a disciplined line. They controlled the territories but not the players. They’ve only accomplished point A, plus there are points B and C. I’ve said about this before. Meanwhile, Batshuayi also scored an uninterrupted goal for the Dynamo team. And with him was only his teammate, Valencia from Ecuador. When the ball was injected into the side post from behind, everyone forgot the two opponents and moved to the close post and the middle of the goal. These are not trivial things! These are serious things that affect the outcome. I’ll also point out that Shepelev had a very good free kick with a score of 1:1 and Buyalsky outperformed his opponent with a header. Then the ball was beaten by the goalkeeper of the Turkish team. And by the way, when Tsygankov scored against Fenerbahce, no one took him personally. For many years, problems in modern football have arisen from the wrong actions of defensive players in their own penalty area and their own goal balls. I’m sure the coaches devote a lot of time to these aspects of the game. But this often manifests itself in matches with strong opponents, which are not insignificant.

– What are your expectations from the next matches of the Ukrainian teams in the European cups?

– In connection with the timing of the 2022 World Cup, the calendar of European cups is narrowing. And now, this week Shakhtar will play against Celtic and Dynamo and Dnipro will play against teams AEK and Apollo from Cyprus. We wish them all good luck, good results and a quality game. When all three of our teams win, we will all be happy. I hope that happens.