Mircea Lucescu: "We need to freshen up the team."

Head coach of Shakhtar commented on the outcome of the Champions League round of 16 return leg in Dortmund.

- A deserved win, Borussia deservedly progressed further. This evening they were the team that was hard to beat. I want to note once again that it is a well-deserved victory. We had hope up to the 30th minute, as long as the opponents didn’t create anything, with us waiting for our counterattacking chance. But, unfortunately, they scored a goal from a corner kick, and then all our plans changed. The fatal were 7 minutes - from 30th to 37th, when the opponents scored again after our errors. At half-time I told my players to change their game, and it was evident in the first 15 minutes: we created about four chances, after which we could score.

But the error of our goalkeeper, probably ruined it all. We attacked, seized the initiative and tried to score a goal and then do something else, but the goalkeeper’s error led to the third goal, and in fact, everything was over then. A positive aspect was that in the second half we changed our game, started to charge more, had better control of the ball. But Borussia already sat deep in their half and operated on the counter. The fact that Borussia advanced further is full credit of this team. Just one single thing - the match was officiated by five officials, with two of them behind the goals, and none of them saw the hand ball, although the score, of course, was 3-0. This is not an excuse, but even at such score if they don’t award a penalty, it’s not clear what they do behind the goals at all. I wish Borussia every success. I will repeat the words that I said yesterday at the press conference: I would like Borussia to play in the final. This is a very strong team, which dispalys very good football.

- Mr Lucescu, what food for thought did today's game give you?

- I think we need to infuse new blood in the team.

FC Shakhtar
Press Office