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Shakhtar midfielder shared his expectations ahead of the meeting with Chornomorets, according to FC Shakhtar press office. 

- Henrikh, now Chornomorets sit in fifth place, being five points adrift of Dynamo. Do you think the Odesa side are capable of claiming one of the top three or the fourth place this season?

- Yes, they really are. I think that Chornomorets’ current form is better than anyone else’s in the league. They perfectly understand their current position, and in the remaining matches they will do everything to achieve the best results. Of course, in the upcoming fixture we will try to not let them take away any points from Donetsk. But they have good players, a strong coach. If they can dhttp://karavarum.panorama.am/libs/FCKeditor/editor/images/spacer.gifo better than now – let them do that, but I would be happy for them, because such competition raises the Ukrainian league level.

- Do you agree that Chornomorets are strong primarily owing to their coaching staff?

- Yes, Hryhorchuk built a very strong team. They sit in the fifth place deservedly, the Odesa outfit display good football and achieve great results.

- When you said that Chornomorets were in great shape, did you man their two consecutive wins in the spring part of the league season?

- Yes, but, in addition, Chornomorets won eight out of their nine most recent league games. So they have enjoyed this winning streak since last season.

- Don’t you fear the opponents who have gathered such momentum?

- No, I don’t. We understand that we will play good opponents, it won’t be easy. But I think we are in a pretty good shape; we will try to play well, win and make our fans happy.

- In the previous meeting in Odesa, Shakhtar thrashed them 5-1, and you scored a hat-trick. Was that match easy enough for you to play?

- I wouldn’t say that the victory was easy. We were helped a lot by the fact that we had scored an early goal and forced Chornomorets to play less defensively and try to attack. Had it still been 0-0 , I think that the Odesa side wouldn’t have played open football against us. Despite the 5-1 scoreline, that victory came to us very hard, I hope that it will be much easier this time.