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Shakhtar exceeded all expectations, scoring four points in matches against Real Madrid and Inter. These results allowed us to look optimistically at the two games against Borussia Monchengladbach. After all, this is a pot 4 team and they don’t have stars like Real and Inter. You would have thought, if you don’t beat Borussia, how can you qualify for the playoffs? Yet reality blatantly and mercilessly pointed out the naivety of all our ideas and expectations.
Naive. This was today’s Shakhtar in the game with Borussia. Gladbach played modern, fast and progressive football and punished the Pitmen for the simplest mistakes. The level of intensity offered by Borussia today was absolutely beyond Shakhtar’s power.
Luis Castro trusted the squad that took points away from Real Madrid and Inter, and that was his main mistake. Like never before, Taras Stepanenko was missing in midfield, who would not only win individual bouts and “clean up” the mistakes of his young teammates, but would also be a leader or even a coach on the field who could help Shakhtar find an antidote to Gladbach’s pressure and how- then to establish a game on defense.
But in today’s game, it wasn’t just Shakhtar’s midfield that failed. The whole team has failed and no footballer deserves a positive response.
How easily Borussia scored all the goals! But behind this ease, as is often the case in football, you could feel the job well done by the coaching staff and the fantastic performance of their moments. For example, the first goal. Kornienko lost sight of Liner, the center of Gladbach saw him Neuhaus and gave a pass 40 meters long to the Austrian side. Liner had time to take the ball and give it to Plea safely. The Frenchman beat Cooper, the ball in the net, 0: 1.
Shakhtar did not play and lost the ball very easily under pressure from Borussia. On the second goal, Gladbach stole the ball from the Pitmen twice in just a couple of minutes, and it all ended with a long-range shot from Kramer. Cooper put his foot under the blow and incriminated Trubin.
Borussia won 2-0 during the match and against Real, but then conceded two goals in return. Today the “stallions” decided to score four goals themselves, and all in the first half. Again cutting into their doors, again the safety net does not work, again the chaos in zone 14, and Plea hits the “nine” without resistance. And Bensebaini put a point before the break. He won the air after a corner, Trubina threw himself through the door and the Algerian shot through the young goalkeeper’s gloves.
0: 4 comebacks are extremely rare in football. Today, nothing said that Shakhtar could recover. Castro played a triple change at halftime, but the game hasn’t changed. Gladbach carried out his trademark vertical attacks in two or three hits, scored twice more (Stindl after a pass to Plea, Plea after a pass to Thuram) and, overall, he was in complete control of the game.
What happened? Underestimation? Under training? Just a rainy day? These are all ridiculous excuses. Today one team played modern soccer and the other offered nothing but total confusion. Castro and his assistants will spend several sleepless nights doing video analysis. Otherwise, the second leg will end in the same disaster.
(photo – Alexander Prikhodko, UA-Football)
Champions League, third round. Kiev, “NSC Olympic”
Shakhtar 0-6 Borussia Monchengladbach
Goals: Statement 8, Bondar 17 (author), Statement 26, Bensebaini 44, Stindl 65, Statement 69
“Miner”: Trubin – Dodo, Bondar, Khocholava, Kornienko – Maikon (Stepanenko 69) – Tete, Marcos Antonio (Alan Patrick 46), Marlos (Kovalenko 46), Solomon – Tyson (Moraes 46)
Borussia: Sommer – Bensebaini, Elvedi (Jantschke 82), Ginter, Liner (Lang 82) – Neuhaus, Kramer – Thuram, Stindl (Wolf 75), Hofmann (Lazaro 75) – Supplication (Traore 82)
Warnings: Hocholava 46, Solomon 63
