Costa and Pyatov praise pacy Shakhtar

"Fast and aggressive football" was the key to FC Shakhtar Donetsk's 4-0 Group A success against Real Sociedad de Fútbol according to two-goal Douglas Costa, after the Ukrainian champions stayed in the hunt for a UEFA Champions League round of 16 place. "Despite the final score it really was not easy," was the view of victorious goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov, while Carlos Vela and Rubén Pardo were dejected after seeing La Real's European return come to an early conclusion in Donetsk.

Douglas Costa, Shakhtar midfielder
It does not matter who was named the man of the match. The most important thing is that the team played well and won. This is our collective achievement. Of course we hoped to win because we badly needed the points, but we never expected 4-0. The result is a big surprise for us. I can only congratulate our fans who saw this game.

The coach asked us to play fast and aggressive football, so we did. I practise long-range shooting a lot – which is why, for my first goal, I just tried my luck and got what I wanted. In training we also work hard on corners and other set pieces, so our first goal was from homework. I scored my second with my head, which is not typical. If I remember correctly, it is only my second-ever headed goal.

Andriy Pyatov, Shakhtar goalkeeper
We knew the most important thing today was to win. We prepared ourselves for a very hard game, and despite the final score it really was not easy. All the boys did their best, and I must thank them because I did not have much work today. A fantastic save from [Antoine] Griezmann's volley? I was lucky to get a hand on it. 

Real Sociedad played precisely the way Mircea Lucescu told us they would, so they did not surprise us at all. We took some time in the first half to get the measure of them, that is why they had more possession in the opening minutes. Then we started playing our usual football and everything clicked into place.

Carlos Vela, La Real forward
Of course, it is a disappointing match and campaign for us. We expected to get more points and fight for a place in the next stage. But our team is young, so we need to gain experience in this competition to return here in the future. We conceded the first goal because of our own mistake, through not being focused at a corner. We then had a very tough spell but tried to come back into the game. Unfortunately, another silly error at the beginning of the second half led to the second goal, which killed the game. We had to open up and gave lots of space to Shakhtar's players who are very fast – and when they have space to run and counterattack they will most likely score more.

I do not think the problem is our defensive line. The whole team have to defend and attack. We played against a fantastic side, and if you make even the smallest mistake you get punished. Sometimes the opposition are simply better, like tonight. However, it was a good lesson for us, one we must remember. We still have huge motivation for the final game against Bayer 04 Leverkusen, because we want to get our first win in the group.

Rubén Pardo, La Real midfielder
I did not expect a game and result like that. We needed to play much better going forward, but Shakhtar's Brazilian midfielders are top-class players and it was very difficult against them. As a result we made several mistakes and were made to pay for them. We are very disappointed but our coach did not tell us off. He told us to keep our chins up because we have very important games in the Liga and the last group match against Leverkusen. We really want to get three points against Bayer and finally please our fans with a win in the competition.