Roberto De Zerbi maintains Shakhtar Donetsk’s 0-0 draw with Inter is ‘a prestigious result’ in the Champions League and either side could’ve taken the full points.
Both these teams lost their opening fixtures in the group and are still waiting for their first goals, as it ended goalless in Kiev.
Champions League | Shakhtar Donetsk 0-0 Inter: Stalemate in Ukraine
While the hosts dominated the second half and poured forward for most of it, they also needed the crossbar to keep out Nicolò Barella, while veteran goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov made two decisive late saves on Tucu Correa and Stefan de Vrij.
Shakhtar’s best scoring opportunity was a Pedrinho tap-in, miraculously kept out by a Milan Skriniar tackle, but they lost top scorer Lassina Traore to a serious knee injury after just 10 minutes.
“Traore’s injury was just bad luck. It was a great game of football, the referee did well,” said De Zerbi in his press conference.
“It’s a serious injury, we don’t know how bad yet. It’s so sad, but he’s 20 years old and has his whole future ahead of him.
“Pedrinho did well filling in as a centre-forward, as did Tete. Maybe we would’ve won with Traore, maybe we would’ve lost. It’s sad more on a personal level than as a coach.”
De Zerbi had said yesterday that Inter were stronger mentally than last season under Antonio Conte, so has he changed his mind?
“No, I believe the same, they are a great team and they are stronger than we are. At times we had total control of the game, but Inter always created problems for us and that showed their strength. They also introduced Correa and Alexis Sanchez, who have different characteristics to Lautaro Martinez and Edin Dzeko, but are just as effective.
“Both teams had really good scoring opportunities and could’ve won the game. I was not bluffing, a point against Inter is a prestigious result.”