Shakhtar look for improvement

Shakhtar Donetsk defender Yaroslav Rakitskiy hopes his side can learn from their mistakes when they host Barcelona in the Champions League.

The Ukrainian champions started boldly against Barca in their quarter-final first-leg match at the Nou Camp last Wednesday, before being overwhelmed on their way to a 5-1 thrashing.

Rakitskiy’s goal was the only bright spot on a dark night for Shakhtar, and the 21-year-old is optimistic his teammates will not make the same errors on Tuesday against the might of the Catalans.

“(Andres) Iniesta’s early goal didn’t kill our plans,” Rakitskiy said. “We started well enough but we failed to make good use of our opportunities.”

“We learned that the most important thing is to take your chances against such strong opposition.”

“Not conceding goals is also crucial. Last week we helped Barcelona score. Now we should do our best to avoid the mistakes made at the Camp Nou.”

Rakitskiy ‘s partner in the centre of defence, Dmytro Chygrynskiy, is still bothered by an ankle complaint and will be out for the second leg, but Rakitskiy insisted his team will doing their utmost to win at Donbass Arena regardless of who lines up.

“It’s not important who plays alongside me tomorrow because only top-class players get to wear the Shakhtar shirt,” he said.

“At 5-1 our chances of qualifying are quite small, but our goal is to win at home as always.”