It was a really poor game until we secured the result. The first half was especially bad watching. Part of that was our horrendous passing and part of it was Shakhtar not willing to engage us. We certainly held our defensive shape very well and didn’t give them much space but even still, I was surprised at their lack of intent. Made for a weird contest at times.
We did better to raise the tempo in the first 15 mins of the 2nd half but I felt we labored too much due to our own errors. We need to improve in this regard. Better opponents will punish us (and already have) if we can’t find that second goal to kill off the game.
That delicate period in between taking a 1-goal lead, and buying some security with a 2nd goal, is crucial and often precarious for us. How many times have we scored early, then been shit or wasteful, then made to pay? I don't need to remind everyone of the obscene number of points we've dropped from a winning position.
Just last week, Havertz had a very dangerous chance to equalise at 2-1. Today, their one good chance came while the score was 1-0, after a period where we were starting to get a bit sloppy. And what a fucking ludicrous chance it was. In a hilarious moment,
my commentator said, and I directly quote: "Totally isolated in the middle, Junior Moraes. Look at the number of blue and black shirts back there. Three, six, eight against one. You're not going to score like that..." Literally two seconds later, the guy gets a fucking free header 1 meter away from Handanovic. Unbelievable.
All that said though, we were ruthless once we got the fatal 2nd goal. Tactical battle aside, this was a game of wits and we won it convincingly. We mentally beat them down more than anything. Once D'Ambrosio scored, they were wounded and didn't have the tactics to counter us nor the mental fortitude to mount any kind of comeback. We smelled blood in the water and went in for the kill - not dissimilar to Bayern Munich the other day. That's the kind of ruthlessness we need on a more regular basis. When your opponent is hurt, don't give them time to recover. Finish the job and dispatch them.
A few months back, I commented that we often played with the arrogance of champions, minus the mentality. I said this after one of our countless games where we took the lead, complacently squandered chances to kill the game, then conceded and dropped points. We seem to have mentally improved in recent matches, and that's obviously very pleasing to see.
Finally, you'd have to give MOTM to Toro, but I just want to say Godin is a hero. I stand by my opinion of Skriniar, which is that he must stay, and selling him would be a disgrace. But right now, Godin is very rightfully keeping Skriniar on the bench.
10 years of FIF
