Not Until Srna: How Coronavirus Helped Luis Castro at Shakhtar

And why the matches with Gladbach are the most important of his career.

Just a year ago, when Shakhtar were second in a group with Manchester City, Atalanta and Dinamo Zagreb, Luis Castro's position as head coach seemed shaky. And before the start of the new European campaign, the Portuguese's future at the club, if one believes the rumors, really was in question.

Whenever Castro's surname came up, people increasingly talked about the team's lack of progress overall and of its players in particular, rather than the very recent appearance in the Europa League semifinal and the win in the national championship. And people increasingly recalled Dario Srna, who is supposedly the sporting director but has coaching ambitions.

A far from ideal start in the UPL also complicated the situation, so the opening Champions League matches were more than a simple test of the team's strength. Then a coronavirus outbreak hit the squad, wiping out almost the entire core, from Pyatov and Stepanenko to Tyson and Moraes. What could be expected, and what was there to hope for, with Real and Inter ahead? But as it turned out, the misfortune helped.

Or does anyone really believe that Shakhtar — the one we saw at the end of last season and at the start of this one — could have taken even the same four points from the teams of Zinedine Zidane and Antonio Conte?

I don't. And that is precisely why a year ago I wanted to talk more about the club management's mistakes than about any coaching miscalculations.

But Castro himself, of course, did not make the situation easier, timidly taking risks with rejuvenating the squad. The forced loss of many key players left the Portuguese no choice but to rely on footballers who were long overdue to prove themselves at a serious level, rather than on those who had set the standard for the whole team back in Mircea Lucescu's time.

Of course, much in these two matches was given to Shakhtar by an emotional surge that touched not only the closest reserves but also the youngest players.

The abilities of Tete and Solomon raised no questions. Former club player Totovytskyi recalled the day before: “When Solomon had just joined Shakhtar, you couldn't take the ball off him. Three people attack him, and he keeps beating them.” The questions were about whether they were ready to consistently help the team get results.

So what was the outcome? They secured a win over Real (2+1 in goal-plus-assist terms) and held Inter, which had not long before put five past Shakhtar.

There were no doubts about the talents of Trubin, Kornienko and Bondar either, but Real and Inter, really? Against Lukaku and Benzema? Ha. In the end, all of them performed well and not as a one-off — all were good against both Real and Inter. This, by the way, is a moment to be happy not only for Shakhtar but also for the national team — in Andriy Shevchenko's traditionally wide squads, they (some already, some again) should be expected very soon.

As for Shakhtar, Castro faces a big question — perhaps the biggest of his career, despite its already impressive length. Keeping the same lineup that produced the result in Madrid for the Inter game was understandable: first, the well-known rule still applied, and second, the fitness of those who missed training because of coronavirus was in question.

But in the paired matches against Gladbach's Borussia in November, one of these presumed arguments will lose its relevance, which makes the dilemma facing the head coach look more serious. It would seem you can't leave Pyatov, Kryvtsov, Stepanenko and Tyson on the bench — they are masters after all. But there is a catch, don't you agree?