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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Mark Walker

Shakhtar in frank Celtic confession as skipper has one big worry ahead of Champions League crunch

Shakhtar skipper Taras Stepanenko admits he can offer no guarantees his side will recreate their four-goal heroics which left RB Leipzig reeling ahead of the visit from Ange Postecoglou 's side next week.

They welcome Celtic to Warsaw next week for the second round of Champions League fixtures and are aiming to make it six points out of six. And captain and Ukraine International Stepanenko - who played when his country beat Scotland 3-1 in the June World Cup playoff - reckons former Celtic misfit Marian Shved could be the man to help them to another victory. And he remains full of belief despite his side packed with under the radar players.

He said: "We now have a great chance to get out of our group. A win next week would make that very likely. At the moment, we don't know whether we will finish second, third or fourth because Real Madrid will obviously win the group. But three points next week gives us a great opportunity to qualify and still be in the Champions League next year. We have a team who are young and everyone knows what young players are like - they can be great one week and not so good the next, so we don't know if we can be as good against Celtic as were against Leipzig.

"Marian Shved showed everyone just what he is capable of. Even before he won his transfer to Celtic, I knew how good he was because I played against him when he was with Karpaty Lviv. He has settled in brilliantly and who knows, maybe if he keeps playing like that he can get another big move to a club in Europe!"

Meanwhile, Shved was overcome with emotion after his two-goal display thats secured a stunning 4-1 win away to Leipzig. He said: "It is an incredible day. I want to thank God for our chance. I think that such goals are scored not just by chance, but because of my work and belief in myself. We thank Ukraine for support, we deserved this victory! The plan was to fight for every ball, win challenges and demonstrate our play.

"To tell the truth, I don’t even remember (his second goal), there were so many emotions. I have already realised that we are going to win in the 90th minute, but everyone believed in victory throughout the entire game."

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