Reporter Football. ua Alexander Puzik shares his first impressions of the flight to Naples for the duel of the Donetsk Miner.
Today, on November 20, the "miners" headed for Italian Naples, where tomorrow the Ukrainian team will host the penultimate match of the group round of the Champions League against the local Napoli. To achieve the desired result - an early exit from the group Shakhtar must score at least one point in Italy, what to do on the famous San Paolo will be incredibly difficult. The head coach of the "orange-black" Paulo Fonseca took on board 20 players - flew absolutely all healthy players, except Alexander Zubkov, who was recently allowed to play the first team.
Pleased with the presence on board Sergei Krivtsov and, especially, Maxim Malyshev. Both players continue to recover from injuries, but if Sergei was with the team at the last away game in Rotterdam, the appearance of Maxim was a pleasant surprise. The midfielder immediately noticed the revival of journalists and hastened to assure that he was sent to Naples solely as a support group. "How's the leg, Maxim, are you on the mend?" I asked. "It's much better, thanks," smiled Malyshev.
And who do you think has closed the ranks? Of course, the captain of the team Dario Srna. Horvath is still waiting for a verdict on his positive doping test and therefore does not take part in the matches. However, Dario remains part of the team and always goes with her to important fights. Before such responsible games, the presence of the captain will only benefit the players. Also Shakhtar went to Italy, already ex-defender Vyacheslav Shevchuk. In general - excellent support.
Funny episode occurred when Srna and Pyatov passed journalists. The miners goalkeeper stopped by each correspondent and greeted him, while behind him the defender walked with a smile on his face and said: "Pyatov, you still will get a good evaluation of the journalists, let's rather". On that note, Srna smiled at everyone present and hurried to take his place in the salon. Note that almost all the players, despite the early times, were in excellent spirits and joked each other at the first successful moment. During the flight, the players engaged in various things: someone decided to relax, someone watched the film, and the same Srna constantly ran from the end of the salon to the beginning, while keeping the most concentrated kind, as if he participated in the most important negotiations (and maybe so It was? ).
After almost four hours our plane landed successfully on the Apennine peninsula and the delegation of Miner hurried to the hotel. The first disappointment (I hope, the last) - crazy traffic jams. Our team is located in Palazzo Caraccioli, a hotel in the city center.
A few hours after the arrival of the head coach, "Miners" Paulo Fonseca, accompanied by Tyson went to answer questions from journalists, and the team plunged into a pleasant excitement, which often visits the head of players before important matches. Together with other journalists, we took a course on acquaintance with the local color and evening Naples.
Alexander Puzik from Naples, Football. ua Recall on Football. ua will be available an online text broadcast of the Champions League match Napoli - Shakhtar, which will start on November 21 at 21:45.