Roberto De Zerbi concedes Shakhtar Donetsk ‘deserved to lose’ against Inter and are ‘not competitive’ at the Champions League level. ‘There’s more work to do than I was expecting.’
The Ukrainians cannot now progress or catch Sheriff in third place after the 2-0 defeat at San Siro.
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“I didn’t like the way my team played, so we deserved to lose, showing little courage or quality,” the former Sassuolo coach told Sky Sport Italia.
“Inter are a strong side and have even more belief after winning the Serie A title last season. They looked good.
“As for Shakhtar Donetsk, we got one point and that’s all we deserved in this group. We got the ball into the Sheriff penalty area about 100 times without managing to score, so we deserved to lose.
“We are not in a position to play against teams like Inter and Real Madrid.”
At least De Zerbi is improving their fortunes domestically, as Shakhtar Donetsk are on a par with Dinamo Kiev.
“We were 12 points off Dinamo Kiev last season, today we are level on points with almost the same number of goals scored. We bridged the gap, but this Shakhtar is not the one of Willian, Douglas Costa and Fernandinho. Those days are gone.
“There’s a lot of work to do, admittedly more than I had been expecting. We are not pessimistic, but realistic. The fact is, we are not competitive against the likes of Real Madrid and Inter.”