my friend. “Luis Castro commented on the Shakhtar draw

Shakhtar coach Luis Castro commented on the results of the Europa League round of 16 draw against Roma.

– Surprised by the lot?

– No, the draw never surprises us. Any team can get caught and we must be prepared for each one. On the way to the European Cup, we already had enormous difficulties: some we were able to overcome, others not so successfully. We have yet another difficulty. I hope we have a successful time.

– Roma is directed by Paulo Fonseca. How well do they know each other?

– This is my friend. We work together in Porto. When he left Shakhtar, I entered as a substitute. He is a great coach with great knowledge and great quality in football. But the match will not be against Paulo Fonseca, but against Roma. And also Fonseca will not play against Castro, but against Shakhtar. Both teams will have a clear desire to advance to the quarterfinals. It will be a very “tight” stage for both teams, two very difficult encounters, first in Rome, then in Kiev. We have every hope of going further.

– Fonseca has worked with most of the Shakhtar players and knows the philosophy of the club. This is a problem?

– No. These days, we don’t need to work in the clubs we know to know them very well. We study our opponents in great detail. Paulo knows the character of Shakhtar players. Watching the games, we cannot always read the emotional component of the players. Is it an advantage or not? We’ll see. For the moment, Shakhtar must think about what we have been up to now. We have to face another difficult opponent, but we already played with others and we managed to advance further. In 20 European Cup games at Shakhtar, we have 9 wins, 6 draws and 5 losses; 2 defeats against Borussia, 1 each against Inter, Atalanta and Manchester City. On our way we met European giants and we realized that anything is possible. All the doors are open now. For now, in any case, we will tune into what awaits us before the Europa League: the championship and Cup matches. And then we will switch to Rome.

– Shakhtar played 6 games for Roma and won 4 victories. Now the objective is to maintain such positive statistics in the Europa League?

– The objective is to go further. We can get two games, but keep going. This is my goal and my team. How can we do this? We’ll see. Statistics are the kind of thing that isn’t always true. For us coaches, this doesn’t count in many ways. When I spoke of the past, of our path, it was to understand that we had already played against very difficult opponents, and in football everything happens in different ways. Sometimes we are successful and sometimes we are not. We hope everything goes well this time. We will approach these games with absolute calm, but there is still a lot of work to be done in the championship and the Cup.