Lucescu Seeks a Solution to CSKA Conundrum

Mircea Lucescu maintained that he has "a squad capable of solving even the most difficult problems" as FC Shakhtar Donetsk head into their UEFA Cup decider against PFC CSKA Moskva a goal and one key defender down.

No self-pity
Beaten 1-0 in the first leg in Moscow, Shakhtar's task at the RSC Olympiyskiy Stadium has been made tougher with the suspension of first-choice centre-back Dmytro Chygrynskiy, but the Ukrainian champions' Romanian boss was not about to give in to self-pity. "Despite all our problems and Chygrynskiy's suspension, Shakhtar have a squad capable of solving even the most difficult problems," he said.

Recent success
Lucescu has overturned a 1-0 first-leg deficit to win a European tie as recently as August 2007, when Shakhtar beat FC Salzburg 3-1 at home to settle a UEFA Champions League third qualifying round tie. A 3-0 win against fellow UEFA Cup contenders FC Metalist Kharkiv at the weekend has seen spirits soar ahead of the decider between the one-time Soviet Supreme League rivals.

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'Morale boost'
"In Kharkov, we were head and shoulders above Metalist and deserved to win," said Lucescu after the victory which took them up to second place in the table, albeit 12 points adrift of leaders FC Dynamo Kyiv. "We received a great morale boost before the CSKA game, but they did just the same winning 3-0 [at FC Saturn Moskovskaya Oblast] on the first day of new Russian season."

Raţ recovered
Defender Răzvan Raţ did not get the chance to atone for the penalty he conceded to allow Vágner Love to give CSKA the lead in Moscow as he was rested for the game against Metalist. "I was pretty down after the CSKA match, but everyone makes mistakes and now my worries are behind me," said the Romanian. "We must push ourselves to the limit. Me and my team are ready for that. We will make things tough for CSKA on Thursday but it won't be easy for us either."

CSKA absentees
CSKA coach Zico will be without suspended winger Yuri Zhirkov and injured holding midfielder Elvir Rahimić, but Evgeni Aldonin is available. The UEFA Cup's leading scorer Vágner Love should be sharp after being rested against Saturn, while midfielder Miloš Krasić was used sparingly. "Vágner sustained a minor knock in the Russian Super Cup so I gave him a chance to rest and heal so he would be at his best against Shakhtar," explained Zico. "Krasić played 15 minutes because I wanted him to rest too and not lose momentum. He should be 100 per cent ready for the Shakhtar game."

( Igor Linnyk & Dmitri Rogovitski / UEFA )