As Pep Guardiola acknowledged last week when he referred to him as “a wily old cat”, if anybody is capable of an unexpected strike of tactical genius, it is Shakhtar’s veteran coach Mircea Lucescu.
If the Romanian plays it straight, this could end up as a re-run of Barcelona’s tie against Arsenal in the last round: two sides with similar philosophies, one of whom is sufficiently better than the other to win comfortably. Lucescu has always espoused a philosophy of open, attacking football. He prefers young players he can mould – those “without the fear of age” – who will play his high-risk brand of technical pass-and-move football. His sides operate with a high offside line, his full-backs are auxiliary wingers and his front-line is highly fluid. Shakhtar’s style and Barcelona’s are virtually indistinguishable.
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