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After 12 years, Lucescu is no longer on Shakhtar's bench

Despite all problems, Shakhtar kept together last year's team, and they are going after the Champions League again

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After five back-to-back titles, Shakhtar finished the last two seasons in second position, but we cannot say these seasons were unsuccessful. We should take into consideration the war in Donetsk, the fact that they are not playing at their stadium, and the fact that they sold a lot of players. In such conditions, the second positions and appearance in the strongest European competition definitely cannot be called unsuccessful. 

Shakthar didn't throw away money this season either, they only acquired forward Hevhen Seleznjov from Krasnodar, who will replace Oleksander Gladki who went to Kiev. So the backbone of the team is the same, but there was a big change on the bench, Mircea Lucescu is no longer there, after 12 years. The Romanian coach moved to Zenit over the Summer, and his position will take Portuguese Paulo Fonseca, who led Braga last year. In the first championship round this weekend, the Portuguese recorded a convincing win, but new first division team, Zirka, are not really a measure of quality. 

Marlos talked about the change of the coach on yesterday's press conference:

- Honestly, this is a big change for us. Lucescu had been leading all players in the team for years and of course we will need time to adapt. I personally like the new coach's methods. There are a lot of Brazilians in the club and it's a big plus for us that we can talk to the coach in our native language. He is an intelligent coach who has his ideas and we are slowly adopting them. 

He didn't talk much about the opponents:

- Our coach told us what he knows about the Young Boys. They are a quality team, bot technically and tactically. They may not have any big stars, but they are all doing their job very well. Their biggest strength is their speed, but despite of that, I am convinced that we will have no problems if we play a serious game. If we show our good face, we will advance. 

Defender Azevedo and forward Malinovski are out due to injuries, but that will not be a significant problem for Fonseca. We should also mention that Shakhtar play home games in Lavov, on the West of Ukraine. 

Young Boys were convincingly second in the Swiss championship, with 15 points ahead of third-placed Luzern, but they did not jeopardize leaders Basel at any points. Basel won the title with an advantage of 14 points, and the second position in such conditions was great success for the team from Switzerland's capital.

Coach Adolf Hutter managed to keep the backbone of the team, and he further strengthened the team with forward Frey from Lille and midfielder Schick from Sturm. 

In the preview of the game, the Austrian coach said the home team are the favorites:

- We are optimistic and ready, but realistically, Shakhtar are the favorites today. I cannot promise we will advance, but we will do what we can to provide resistance in Lavov and come back home with a result that could give us realistic chances for advancement. What is our goal in Ukraine? I think it would be ideal to score at least one goal. We are aware that they will attack and we have to give a top performance in defense, but I have no doubts that we will get some chances which we have to use. 

Hutter cannot count on several players with major injuries, like  defenders Loris Benit and Florent Hadergjonaj, and midfielders Denis Zakarija and Torsten Schick.