Fonseca: One mistake cost Shakhtar everything

Paulo Fonseca believes one mistake cost Shakhtar Donetsk as they crashed out of the Champions League to Roma on away goals.

Shakhtar were the better team throughout both legs of the last-16 tie, but they took just a 2-1 lead to Italy and a defensive lapse allowed Edin Dzeko through to score the decisive goal.

Fonseca did not feel his side could have done much more to get a result against a top outfit in Roma, expressing his pride at their European run.

“There’s no point in saying whether [the result] was fair or unfair,” he said. “We could have killed the tie in the first leg and come here with a bigger advantage.

“We played fantastically here and made only one mistake, which we conceded from. I’m proud of my team who had 60 per cent possession, despite playing with 10 men at the end.

“Only great teams can do what we did here. I’m disappointed with the result but I’m happy with the personality we showed here.

“We had a fantastic campaign as we won all four home games. We defeated some great teams and our supporters have to be proud of us. We were superior to Roma but the only mistake tonight cost us everything.

Not our day. 0-1 in Rome and 2-2 aggregately.

We are concluding our @ChampionsLeague campaign. #RomaShakhtar https://t.co/R61xEiQzqw pic.twitter.com/fED5S74IfN

— FC SHAKHTAR ENGLISH (@FCShakhtar_eng) March 13, 2018

“We were so brave. We played as if we were at home – dominating and playing the game how we wanted.

“Perhaps we were not so sharp in attack but Roma defended deep all the time, closing up any spaces. That’s why our attacking players were not able to show what we expected from them.”

Shakhtar may have only made the one error, but Roma coach Eusebio di Francesco always believed it would come.

“My team played with focus tonight, perhaps without as much quality in the final third, but we knew that sooner or later they would make a mistake and we’d pounce on it,” he told Mediaset Premium.

“We made a few too many mistakes in the first leg and they made the most of them.”