Lucescu: Hard to motivate Shakhtar

Shakhtar Donetsk coach Mircea Lucescu admits he is finding it difficult to motivate his team due to the political situation in Ukraine.

Lucescu’s team left Donetsk, held by pro-Russian rebels, in July last year and have trained and played in Lviv since.

Shakhtar visit Bayern Munich on Wednesday after playing out a 0-0 draw in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last-16 first leg.

Lucescu said the political situation in Ukraine was extremely hard on his players.

“This is a very difficult situation for us. It’s hard to motivate the players,” he said.

“We have lost much, even the sympathy of our fans. Few people come to our games, but that’s also because we don’t play in our home.

“People there [in Lviv] see us as a team from the East and that is very difficult for us. We work under very difficult conditions.

“Therefore, it is very difficult to motivate the team and deal with the situation. Also, the players can’t hide from that.”

Lucescu’s team visit Allianz Arena to face a rampant Bayern side, with Pep Guardiola’s men unbeaten in eight games in all competitions and 11 points clear atop the Bundesliga.

The 69-year-old Romanian lauded Guardiola and said the Spaniard was one of the best coaches.

“In my career I’ve rarely seen such a good coach,” Lucescu said.

“We haven’t got a great friendship because we have played against each other often. And how you can remember, we lost against Barcelona at that time [in the 2010-11 quarter-finals].

“Bayern has outstanding players. If you have a look at the squad, this is one of the strongest teams in Europe. We simply want to sell ourselves and play good football.”