Marino Pusic called Shakhtar Donetsk’s 1-0 Champions League win over Barcelona “merely the beginning” and a huge step for Ukrainian football.
Since 2014, the Ukrainian team has been unable to conduct matches at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk, which is presently under Russian occupation.
However, despite playing Tuesday’s match in the German city of Hamburg hundreds of miles away due to the conflict at home, Danylo Sikan’s 40th-minute dipping header secured a famous victory over the five-time European champions.
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Although Barcelona maintains the lead in Group H over second-placed Porto, who defeated Royal Antwerp 2-0, Shakhtar will face the Belgians on November 28. They have already defeated Porto 3-2 in October, and a second victory would provide them with a legitimate opportunity to advance to the knockout round.
“Very sweet. Not just me, but everyone else finds it sweet. “I’m glad, but I’m also proud of my players and the club’s staff for working hard to help me achieve what we did tonight,” Pusic added.
“Unfortunately, because of the situation in the country, you can call this a home game, but for us, it is a tremendous part—the traveling, and sometimes we need one or two days extra to recover, of course,” noted
“Not so easy… Ukrainian football needs to represent the country in Europe like we did tonight.”
Shakhtar might face Liverpool and Ajax in the Europa League if they finish third in the Champions League group.
It would be great to reach the last 16. Staying in Europe would be a fantastic achievement for this club under those conditions, “Pusic stated.
Georgiy Sudakov, man of the match, said Pusic took him aside after the game.
“He said (to me): ‘Trust me, this is only the beginning,'” claimed Sudakov.
Early on, Shakhtar held their own:
Barcelona won the first match in October 2-1, although Pusic’s team kept the reigning Spanish league winners scoreless.
The first save of the game was by Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who denied Mykola Matviyenko.
As stubborn Ukrainian defenders pushed Barca back, Ilkay Gundogan and Raphinha fired long shots. After returning to Germany from Bayern Munich, seasoned striker Robert Lewandowski looked out of shape.
Barcelona left-back Marcos Alonso was out of position, so Giorgi Gocholeishvili took advantage to score a few minutes before halftime.
The full-back crossed for Sikan, who beat Andreas Christensen to head past Ter Stegen.
Newerton, 18, Shakhtar’s latest Brazilian signing, scored a great second late on, but it was deemed offside. It would have been a great way to end Pusic’s excellent night.
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