On November 27, Shakhtar Donetsk FC will face off against hosting Karpaty Lviv in the 18th round of Ukraine Football Championship.

As Shakhtar head coach Mircea Lucescu noted during the Pitmen’s open training session, the squad is facing a hard game.

“Our game in Lviv will be very tough – we have always had difficult matches there. This is due to Karpaty’s quality players and the atmosphere that is created there. I think that they do not deserve to be in the bottom half of the table. Karpaty is a team that constantly fights for a place in the Europa League, and we know that very well,” the coach said.

“We have to go through those matches that we have already played. Therefore, we analyzed the Champions League match vs Porto yesterday, but not later, as we normally do. Lack of concentration and inattention in the closing stages of the game did not allow us to achieve a good result. It once again indicates the fact that some players do not meet Shakhtar’s level and ambitions.”

“Now we need to get together and analyze our weaknesses again. The players must respond to what happened as real men. Once again, there cannot be any excuses. There are a lot of young players and they represent Shakhtar. We must come onto the pitch and show the game corresponding to this club,” Shakhtar official website quoted the coach as saying.

Porto managed to preserve their chances of progression to the round of 16 of the Champions League with a 2-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk in Group G. The scoreline means that Porto can clinch qualification into the last 16 if they are able to overcome Zenit in their final fixture of the group. Shakhtar, meanwhile, have suffered a campaign to forget, and their foray into Europe this season has come to an end.

Despite unsuccessful performance at Champions League, Shakhtar continues vying for Ukraine Championship gold. Shaktar is 2nd with 42 points, preceded by Dynamo (43 points).