“Lucescu does not have the same problems as Castro”

Well-known Ukrainian coach Yuriy Bakalov spoke about the state of Shakhtar and Dynamo on the eve of the Champions League matches.

“It was interesting to see Dynamo and Shakhtar with their sights set on their future Champions League showdown with Juventus and Real Madrid. As you know, the Pitmen had a lot of problems before the game against Lvov – the coronavirus, so the job was ruined. You will not envy Luis Castro, who had to coordinate training sessions and eliminate shortcomings from a distance.

As for the Dynamo, they have a different situation. Difficulties in preparation were associated with the massive return of footballers from the national teams and the imbalance in the preparation of the positions of Mircea Lucescu. The Romanian specialist was short on time, but the advantage of the Dynamo was that many of their players received full-fledged playing practice in the Nations League and friendly matches.

It is very difficult to say about Shakhtar. Pyatov and Stepanenko themselves now have negative coronavirus tests, but they failed a lot. It is unclear whether they will play or not. The functional preparation of these players is questionable and the risk of injury is great, because the fight is not going to be easy. Also, Kovalenko was injured, but started scoring and generally came back to life.

There is a lot of clarity about the Dynamo lineup for the game against Juventus. Lucescu does not have the same problems as Castro. The Dynamo mentor just varies the lineup. Verbic and Rodriguez, for example, came back late from their teams, so they didn’t play the entire fight.

The goal of the miners in the meeting with Lvov was to score an early goal, there were four of them at once … Shakhtar has a systematic approach to training young players, in all positions. Young people are gradually preparing for real challenges, and Marcos Antonio, Tete and Cipriano have been wearing an orange and black shirt for several years. I would like to point out that Real are not in perfect condition now, furthermore Sergio Ramos, to my knowledge, was injured and his participation in the match with Shakhtar is in doubt, ”said Bakalov.

Let’s remember that Dynamo will play Juventus on October 20 in Kiev and Shakhtar will face Real Madrid on October 21 in Madrid.