Shakhtar Midfielder Georgiy Sudakov Reflects on Champions League Defeat to Arsenal

Following Shakhtar Donetsk’s narrow 1-0 loss to Arsenal in the Champions League, key midfielder Georgiy Sudakov was respectful toward their opponents but refused to be overly self-critical.

“The first half was very difficult for our team. There was a certain atmosphere, a pressure which helps your opponent when it's an away game against such an incredibly strong team. Arsenal are probably one of the strongest teams in Europe, in the world even. We conceded during the first half, they had other chances, but we also wanted to play well and we also created our own chances. During the second half, I think we played… maybe not extremely well, but we played a game we could be proud of. We wanted to score, we tried, we had our chances. I think that we deserved to score at least once,” Sudakov told UEFA’s official website.

Despite Shakhtar’s slow start in the group stage (just one point from three matches), Georgiy remains optimistic about their chances of reaching the knockout phase:

“ We are working on it. We believe in it. We are improving from game to game; we'll see what will happen, it's hard to plan ahead.”