Marino Pusic: Shakhtar deserved to win and played pretty well

Press conference of head coach of Shakhtar Marino Pusic after the match against Dynamo (1-0).

– Marino, congratulations on your first victory in the UPL! Are you satisfied with the result and could Shakhtar score more? And please tell us, what kind of injury does Azarov have?
– It is always good to win a game, especially an important one, a derby, let me start with that. It means a lot, it is a great result. As for Azarov, he was injured, tomorrow we will see how bad it is and how long it is going to take to recover, I hope that not a lot of time. He was replaced by Rakitskyi, and Matviienko played as a left full-back – they both did a very good job.

– Do you think the result of the match is fair or you just got lucky?
– No, I think we deserved this victory: we had the initiative most of the time, played pretty well until the last third in the first half, where we lacked better secure passes a bit. But when I summarise this game altogether, I can say that the opponent had some chances too, but we dominated the game through possession and good organisation. Two chances they got happened when we had one player less. It was a bit of a hectic situation, but summarising the game altogether, I think we deserved to win and played pretty well.

– Congratulations on the victory in the Clasico! Please tell us why Artem Bondarenko skipped this game?
– Thank you. Artem is injured. Yesterday we tried to prepare him for this game, but it was too big of a risk, so we decided not to start with him. Hopefully, he will not be out for a long period, because he is a very good and important player for us.

– What do you think about the level of the Ukrainian League?
– I do not know much about the league, of course, but I know Shakhtar pretty well, because when I was at Feyenoord, I had to analyse them a lot, so I saw many matches and we played against them. So I knew approximately what the level would be. This is a talented team with a lot of potential. We started to work pretty hard, develop more and more. I see a lot of physical effort from teams in the league, they try to play. And like every league, I have to say that this championship is specific in its own way. Every league has its own energy and difficulties, and like I said, when you take part in the competition, it is kind of a marathon. During this marathon, you will do your best to end up first. But there are a lot of things to do. There are a lot of good teams that are competitive and like to play, I saw it. So we started now, we will see how it goes.

– Are you currently building the team’s game or a new team in your opinion?
– It is always a parallel process. You work with the team that you have and you still try to raise it to the higher level. At this moment we work very hard together to play the game like we want to play, to be dominant and have good ball possession. And I can only say that the players are responding very well to it and are working very hard. I am very satisfied with their efforts and the way they worked. It is very good. It is always a parallel process: you work with the players, you work with the team, but at the same time you also think about how to improve the team, make them bigger and stronger.

– You just basically fired the former head coach of Shakhtar, Mircea Lucescu. What are your emotions?
– First of all, he is the same age as my father, so I have great respect for him and especially for his career, for how long he has been at the top and what he achieved. When you talk about Lucescu, you can only express respect for him. And it was his own decision today. Of course, this is something personal, but I can imagine that at this age that is enough. But I have only one word for this coach: respect. And I have admit that only the greatest could stay so long at the top level.