Shakhtar boss Lucescu's elixir of youth

Shakhtar Donetsk coach Mircea Lucescu takes charge of his 100th UEFA Champions League game (group stage to final) on Wednesday. Over his 36-year coaching career, he has won titles in Romania, Turkey and Ukraine, impressed in Serie A and lifted the 2008/09 UEFA Cup. Moreover, as the 70-year-old tells UEFA.com, his passion for working with young players is as strong as ever.

UEFA.com: How have you maintained your enthusiasm for coaching?

Mircea Lucescu: To still be working in your 70s, after almost 30 years in European club football – that's not easy, and I have never even taken a year's break. What keeps me going is my passion for the game; a passion for working with people and developing players.

Of course, all that in itself is not enough to survive at this level – you also need results; you need to be focused all the time and motivated to be the best, and you need the right people around you.

The satisfaction and sense of achievement – all of that makes me know that I still want to be in the game, and stops me feeling the years passing by. Football can give you that satisfaction. I'm trying to give back to football everything that I've received over all these years.

UEFA.com: You have worked with so many great players; how do you get the very best out of them?

Lucescu: Since I moved from being a player to a coach, my main concern has always been to pass on my experience to young players. Once players reach full maturity – at 32, 33 – they've developed their own ways and it can be difficult for them to accept new things, new ideas. That is why I enjoy working with the young ones.

I promoted Andrea Pirlo into the [Brescia] senior team aged 16; in Romania, I did the same with Gheorghe Hagi [he was 18 when Lucescu gave him first cap for Romania].

I'm very proud when I see players I took on at 18 or 19 playing for big teams in Europe, and demonstrating the best standards; Fernandinho at Manchester City, Willian at Chelsea, Henrikh Mkhitaryan at Dortmund, Adriano at Milan, Douglas Costa at Bayern. It means I always feel young.

UEFA.com: Shakhtar are competing in the group stage again despite the political problems back in Ukraine ...

Lucescu: It is a very difficult situation. We are based in Kyiv, and play in Lviv or Kyiv, Odesa – we don't have our own training base, but we maintain a high level of performance. For me, getting through qualifying and proving that you deserve to be in the group stage is more satisfying than winning the competition.

UEFA.com: Shakhtar have lost the likes of Luis Adriano and Douglas Costa since last season; how do you go about replacing key players like that?

Lucescu: Two years ago we lost Fernandinho, Willian and Mkhitaryan; this time, Adriano, Douglas Costa, Ilsinho and Fernando. We've decided not to invest in more players until we are playing in Donetsk again, and instead to promote players from our academy, like the ones who played Chelsea in the UEFA Youth League final last season. They are fresh new players with very good potential.

It is not easy to cover for the absences of those who left, but I'm very positive, proud and content that Shakhtar can provide Europe and the Brazil national team with players who are well trained and into good habits at a very young age. We've lost players, but we've gained so much as a team.