Lucescu: tie is decided, Barcelona are going through

PanARMENIAN.Net - Mircea Lucescu, FC Shakhtar Donetsk coach said he did expected such a result in the match against Barcelona.

“We have a great team that can play much better than we did. I decided not to close up and defend. I decided to try and play, to catch them out. But when we had a chance to score we missed it and they instantly went 1-0 up with an incredible goal from Iniesta that changed everything,” he said.

“We did get ourselves back into it – we fought our way into the game but went on failing to convert our opportunities. In contrast, Barca know exactly how to provoke errors in your defending – they are so smart. They were clinical in taking their own chances, grew in confidence and, I think, the tie is already decided and they are going through. But we will use this experience to grow, to learn and we will attempt to win the home leg in front of more than 50,000 fans who want to see us playing with style. We have lost to a footballing machine and they know how to guard this lead in the second leg but I know we can be very positive and play much better next week,” UEFA.com quoted Lucescu as saying.