Roberto De Zerbi has admitted that his Shakhtar Donetsk team aren’t ready to compete in the Champions League, following their 2-1 Group D loss to Real Madrid on Wednesday night.
The former Sassuolo boss is in a difficult position with his team unlikely to qualify for the knock-out stages because they only have one point from their opening four games, but De Zerbi thinks he knows the reasons for their poor form.
They take on Inter next with the Nerazzurri hoping to possibly qualify for the Round of 16.
“We showed today that we aren’t ready to compete in the Champions League,” De Zerbi said in his post-match press duties.
“There are three things that we have to do. We need to allow our young players to grow into the team. Secondly, we need to win in Ukraine because we didn’t win anything last season.
“The last thing we have to do is to strengthen in the transfer window because we are lacking technical players. If we do those three things then we can start to think about competing in the Champions League.”
Shakhtar Donetsk finished 11 points behind Dynamo Kyiv, last season, and are second in the Ukrainian Premier League as things stand, three points adrift of the champions.
