Donetsk The miner succeeded an acceptable result in Alkmaar with the local AZ and passed to the semi-finals of the Conference League. “Champion” shares his thoughts on the motives of the game.
Shakhtar finally formed an optimal team
It would seem that the end of the season is soon – but the “miners” kept the intrigue for a record long time regarding which players to consider the main ones and which ones – no. The 30-man squad, active rotation, childish level of difficulty in the Conference League – all this long left the question of which squad Turan considers to be the strongest.
AZ, in my opinion, gave the answer. The starting lineups for both games differed only by one player: if in Alkmaar Nazarina went to the center of the field, then in the home game Pedrinho stood out. The remaining ten players were the same: Risnyk in the goal, the four Konoplia – Matvienko – Bondar – Pedro Enrique in front of him, Ocheretko and Isake in the center of the field, the Brazilian trio of Alisson – Elias – Neverton in the attack.
Partly due to the will of chance (Isake, of course, showed phenomenal resilience: after such a blow in the first game, he recovered immediately for the base), partly due to the circumstances (I am sure, if it were not for Konoply’s unwillingness to extend the contract, he would have played constantly), but the squad was formed – and, as we can see, the local task was solved.
It is interesting that no goals make Traore the main one, and Bondarenko is just a pity: there was a time when he looked no worse than Sudakov.
But, it seems, other things being equal, Turan is betting on the Brazilian backbone. Has anyone at least asked Brazilians if they learn Ukrainian? Srna does not teach her either, handing out all the interviews in Russian…
For adaptation on the field and off it, it is useful to have mentally close people, and Vinicius, Neverton (and, I think, still Pedrinho, not Nazarin) are added to the optimal composition, supposedly in a set with Alisson, Pedro Enrique, Elias.
AZ surrendered without a fight
And in general, it’s all unimportant. If in the previous match I characterized the team composition as “young-green”, then now in AZ an almost junior team came out.
Of the 11 players who started the match, only three (!) are older than 22 years. And those are the reserve 25-year-old forward Ibrahim Sadik, the reserve 28-year-old defender Rion Itihara and the 35-year-old goalkeeper Jeron Zut, who, of course, now plays regularly, but only because of an injury to the main team. The rest are just juniors, who much more often play not for AZ, but for Yong AZ.
FC Shakhtar
Reasons? Alkmaar has a particularly important Dutch Cup final on Sunday. First of all, the club simply hasn’t won anything since 2013 – the management is changing in the summer, and no one wants to go completely without victories.
At the same time, the opponent in the final is modest Nijmegen, and it is definitely not possible for an underdog to lose the trophy twice in a row (in 2025, the trophy was given to the Go Ahead Eagles). And the modest sixth place in the Eredivisie motivates to win one match and enter the Europa League with a parade match, and not to fight long and boringly for the Conference League.
Pleasant atmosphere
I will give an excerpt from the presentation of AZ:
“If Alkmaar is in any way inconsistent with stereotypes, it is in the context of fans. Everyone is used to imagining a sea of orange, a real riot of emotions – but the fans of the “cheese farmers” disappointed one coach to the point that they received public criticism.
The same Ko Adrianse, who was remembered by Ukrainian fans for Donetsk Metalurg, once called the public in the stands “cheesy spectators”. Ko meant that it’s more interesting to watch the cheese ripening than to watch the fans sitting in a stately state.”
And let the stadium be built a new one since the time of Co. and Co. (they moved in 2006), but the situation in Alkmaar turned out to be simply heavenly compared to the battles against Lech. Shakhtar, above all, felt at ease on the field, took the ball at his feet – and his fans, who came to Alkmaar from neighboring cities and countries, shouted over the Dutch without any problems. In particular, the legendary catchphrase:
5:2 by the amount should not close your eyes: there are still many problems in the game
And when Alisson beautifully beat Zut, it seemed that this match would be a kind of festival performance to the delight of the Ukrainian diaspora in the Netherlands, Germany and other neighboring countries. But Bondar soon brought a free kick from the shooting position – and it became nervous even then.
Obviously, with such initial data, AZ could make substitutions that would strengthen the game. Instead of the young 21-year-old Mateo Garcia, the experienced 22-year-old Jensen came out – and realized a free kick without a chance for Riznyk. But 20-year-old Ufkir and 19-year-old Kovach even lowered the average age, but improved the passing culture.
The second goal of AZ turned out to be beautiful, and the last three actions before Sheen’s goal were made by “jokers”. Robbemond’s pass in the center, Ufkir’s pass into the penalty area, Kovac’s shot directly under the shot – all these were the actions of fresh players.
From the point of view of fighting for the semi-finals, it was still not serious. Shakhtar has enough “jokers”: Meirelish not only scored, but could also bring victory: Zut made a great save. The defense of this, sorry for the large number of capital letters, AZ B, is very naive and could not fight – but this does not cancel the fact that even with the first team of the same team, the “miners” were simply lucky and scored three at once in one successful stretch.
Overview of the match AZ – Shakhtar on the MEGOGO media service:
It won’t work out that way with Crystal Palace – the “Eagles” themselves will punish whoever you want for naivety in defense. They are far from dozing off and suffered a lot against regular AEK (Larnaca), but you can’t dribble against them and lose the ball, as Alisson did. It will require the maximum from everyone who steps out onto the field.
