Jovicevic: Now we can prepare for the game against Celtic fully concentrated
Press conference of Shakhtar head coach Igor Jovicevic after victory over Chornomorets (2-1).
– Mister, how did you motivate your team for today’s game after win in the Champions League match?
– The team and coaching staff understood that it will be difficult to play in the UPL after such emotionally and physically exhausting Champions League match. And today we had a really hard game that we broke thanks to the temper. We fought, although we didn’t have so many emotions and aggressiveness, especially at the second goal in the field centre during the first time. Chornomorets came on very motivated: everyone could see their aggressive attitude to the match, and they overplayed us by emotions, I would say. Atypical football: personally one-on-one on the entire field, not so many teams practice such tactics. So we made a specific correction during the break. But such matches can be won even with bigger score, if we could make a goal from the first Ivan Petriak’s chance. I am sure that this would be like that, because it gives confidence and emotions required for result. I have to point out a good Chornomorets team, great coach. And today, collective Donetsk miner’s temper really helped us to win in this very difficult match. These are important three points for us. Now we can recover a little bit and prepare for game against Celtic fully concentrated.
– You are saying that there were some corrections during the break. What exactly did you want to change?
– Ensure better reaction to one-on-one play. Because not so many teams in the UPL play like Chornomorets really. It is difficult to adapt. It would be easier if we could prepare similarly to Chornomorets, in a small microcycle. Then we would be fresher, there would be more rotation opportunities, position changes, dribbling and one-on-one play would be better. There would be more activity. It is for sure that you make quicker decisions with fresher head. But we made few changes during the break regarding the player positions. Lassina Traore came on as a forward, receiving the ball. He can play with back to goal making the game easier for the team and giving confidence. We did some “digging” and scored one goal. The second one was completely deserved, but I can admit, it was not a great game. That is for sure. But sometimes, when you don’t play very good, but win, it is also a very important temper component. It is not always that you can defeat someone demonstrating the top level, when you struggle, but you believe and fight until the end. This gave a positive result today. Game against Kryvbas and game against Rukh in minority were not exactly bright, but there was this tough spirit. And then God will reward for all the work.
– The team has a tight schedule, match against Celtic is ahead. Do you have enough time to reload and get ready?
– These are completely different emotions. Wonderful opponent with excellent players, team actions. Today we are switching to Celtic already. Players want to watch the match fully and immerse into it. I prohibited the players to think about Celtic, but, you know, they are young kids, we are a young team, and they think about the fact that the UCL match is in four days, not intentionally, but somewhere in subconsciousness. And, maybe, somewhere they lost concentration for today’s game. I couldn’t blame them, this is a normal process. But we have to teach them, when building a team, that you should be able to play in the championship at the similarly high level after the UCL and such burst of energy. UPL is the basis of our process, because this is a marathon, stability, emotional balance. And I ask the team to always demonstrate a regular and stable game. Then we will be able to say that we have a team able to achieve the highest goals.
