“We risk everything. We put Kovalenko forward “

Shakhtar Head Coach Luis Castro He summarized the match of the 5th round of the Premier League with Desna (2: 2):

– The team, especially in the second half, showed a lot of character and pursued the result we wanted. Not always in the best way, but since we already lost after a bad first half … We started very well and scored a goal. But then they made some mistakes, which allowed Desna to gain an advantage. Difficult moment. Apparently, the team connected the last season with this: three days after the semi-finals of the Europa League, we already played the championship game, the 1st round, we were very psychologically tired after the last season. And that did not allow us to enter the championship in the best possible way. I know that those teams that played in the semi-finals and finals of the Europa League and Champions League had a period of at least seven days in which they could rest. Unfortunately we couldn’t do this, we started the championship right away.

The psychological factor suffers from this. We’ve already been away three times: with Zorya, Rukh and Desna. Two of the three are teams from the Europa League. It was really difficult for us with them. This year’s championship is very difficult. The top two title contenders, both Dynamo and us, tied today. This means that the championship will be very competitive, very difficult. And the calendar ahead of us will make this championship even more difficult and dense. Our national teams will now have three matches, and after this hiatus, Shakhtar will have five matches in two weeks. I don’t know how to describe it, but this championship is something we are not so used to. But we will have to get used to it. Despite the character we show, today was bad football on our part.

– This is not the first fight of the season in which your team feels certain problems in the defense phase, in the support zone and behind. Do you see any trends in this?

– No. Both “Desna” goals: the rival dodged three of our players, after which the team can score a goal. In fact, now we are not living the best moment in defense. It is normal in football that now he says: yes, I assume this responsibility. Everyone knows that the coach takes responsibility when this happens. But we have made mistakes that are abnormal, atypical for us. We literally give our opponents the opportunity to score such goals. This is not ours, this is not us. We have been practicing these nuances all this time, and I thought today we will be better at it. Even though the guys worked very well every day in training, today we couldn’t add to our defense.

In the second half, we risk everything. We put Dentinho and Fernando as attackers, Tyson in the offensive midfielder position, plus two wingers, and then also Vitya Kovalenko as attackers. In defense, we only have one line of three players left. In him was Dodo, who made magnificent attacks on the right wing. We risk everything. The character of the team could lead us to victory, but today we played and we achieved this draw not in the best way. There was a lot of desire, but few qualities.