“We are going through a terrible time, a very bad period of the season.”

Shakhtar Head Coach Luis Castro He commented on the defeat in the 1/4 final of the Ukrainian Cup against Agrobusiness (0: 1 dv).

– We are living a terrible time, a very bad period of the season. We are not as productive as we did last year. Even though we had moments when we were able to decide the game in our favor, the opponent also had many moments when they created difficulties for us.

The team controlled the game throughout the game. But we suffered counterattacks, emotionally it robbed us of stability. I will not say that the previous match with Zorya had no effect. It worked. We still can’t wash off the last game.

We need to clear our mind. But this defeat astonished our inner state even more. Football tells us: either we react very quickly to what will now go in our negative direction, or if we cannot react, we run the risk of continuing with those results.

We will try our best to prevent this from happening. We still have two and a half months before the end of the season to fight for the main objective. It is difficult now, but it is still possible.

– Can you tell that Shakhtar is going through a psychological crisis now?

– The negative things that happen to us in life, in football, do not differ from what happens in the lives of ordinary people. This is all very painful. We are not an exception to the rule. Even though we lost to Zarya in the last second, the result is considered in soccer. We played a good game, but we lost. We were upset by a draw, and defeat fell on us as well.

Now we think we could win today. It was our responsibility to continue our way in the Cup. During the match we did not think we could lose, but everything happens very suddenly.

Congratulations to Agrobusiness, a difficult opponent, but we had situations where we were able to resolve the course of the game. We did not score a penalty. All of this has a very negative effect on us. But at the moment there is only one thing we must do.

Soccer has taught me over the years to watch the next game and see it as an opportunity to get back on the right track and achieve the goal we have. Difficult, very difficult.

The fields don’t help much either. Terrible course, we will play again on Saturday. A lot of difficulties, we are not comfortable holding the ball with such a field. But those who listen to me now are not interested. They are interested in the result, everyone is interested in it. And the result is that we lost. I take responsibility.

– Why now with such difficulty creating moments with the team?

– We had moments. In the last game we had 14 chances. We have no difficulties creating clear scoring chances. We had a header on the crossbar, a penalty, we had chances. We create, but we cannot implement them.

This is a period of great uncertainty, in which nothing comes out. Last year we didn’t need so many opportunities, we won. This is the wave we hope to swim through much faster.

– You gave him the opportunity to play footballers who don’t have much practice. Are you happy with how they performed?

– No one can be happy with a result like this. We had a plan, the rotation takes place both at the start of the game and during. In terms of strategy, we had this alignment. Only Alan Patrick remains because he will not be able to play in the next game because of the card. The rest of the boys played, which we planned to use in today’s game.

This was a planned rotation. I’m not happy with the moment, not with my work, not with the work of my players, nothing. The fans are unhappy, the administration is unhappy. Now we cannot look to anyone else for satisfaction. Those who love Shakhtar are dissatisfied now, this is normal. We were deeply impacted by how we feel now, but this is football.