Winner 2-1 in the first leg last week relocated to Warsaw, the Ukrainian club chased from its land in 2014 and now hosted in Lviv, is on a favorable ballot to reach the 8th finals on the eve of the first anniversary of the invasion Russian.
"We think about war every day. During training, during matches, we bear an immense responsibility towards our country, our people and our soldiers who are fighting for our freedom", explained Jovicevic to the press.
"We would like to thank them every day, 100 times a day, and we would like them to be proud of our game, more than the result, when they watch the game," he added.
"What happens on the pitch is a game. Over there, it's real life. So we play with all our heart, until the end, until our last breath", insisted the Croatian coach, linked to Ukraine for more than 20 years and returned to Shakhtar six months ago.
"If we manage to do like the first leg, especially in the dominance on the pitch, we can do it. But we don't have the luxury of calculating," he admitted.
Burkinabè striker Lassina Traoré, one of the very few foreign players to remain with the Ukrainian club, promised that the team would not only seek to defend their goal in advance.
"Shakhtar always plays its football, it always tries to win. We are not going to lie down and play fake. We come here to please the fans and the football," he said.
As in the match against Dynamo kyiv in the group stage, Stade Rennais invited more than 200 Ukrainian refugees hosted in the region to attend the match.
And the club's partners raised funds to provide an ambulance for the Shakhtar delegation.
The Ukrainian club is very committed to helping soldiers and their families: its president Rinat Akhmetov will devote nearly 25 million of the 70 million euros (excluding bonuses) from the January sale of his striker Mykhailo Mudryk to Chelsea. .
© 2023 AFP