Arda Turan Asks 'How Are We Supposed to Do This?' and Reacts: 'It Disturbs Me'

Shakhtar Donetsk drew 2-2 with LNZ Cherkasy in a match where tensions peaked just before the second half began. The restart was delayed by approximately 40 minutes due to an air raid alert in the region. Despite the draw, Shakhtar Donetsk maintains its lead with a game in hand.

After the match, Arda Turan directed his frustration toward the Ukrainian Football Association. Turan gave a clear reaction on behalf of the club and the fans regarding long travel times and uncertainties in the match schedule. His statements were as follows:

"I never try to live by excuses. However, I can say that playing on this pitch at this time today is very difficult. Coming here to play after traveling from Krakow and the AZ Stadium is very hard for a team. We made simple mistakes in the first half along with the wind. I blame myself; I should have prepared the team better. I tried to give warnings, but it’s not easy for them to resonate with the players. You need time to prepare for that to happen. A match every three days, the motivation, the travel... we are struggling significantly; we can't practice. We are forced to show everything in theory."

"It’s not easy; the alarm goes off and we wait inside for a long time, but of course, our priority is always the war and human health. I am sad that we dropped points. We will discuss this among ourselves and try to do our best against Polissya; we will play against the best team in the league. A difficult match awaits us; it will be a historic game for us."

"Against Science and Human Health"
"I want to say something to the Ukrainian Federation. I have come to love this country and I love all of you, but if a Ukrainian team is to be successful, it is now impossible to try because it is impossible for a footballer traveling 16 hours every three days not to suffer a muscle injury. There is no basis for this in science. It is contrary to human health."

"Today we will travel 7-8 hours by car, and tomorrow we don't know how many hours we will travel—maybe 10 hours. I’m not saying these as excuses; the kids are getting injured. Shakhtar is making an investment in players. The Federation needs to help with this. We postponed the Zorya match for the Federation, and now we don’t know where we will play. If they aren't going to help us, how are we supposed to do this job?"

"Shakhtar is Being Left Alone"
"I am sad and tired regarding this issue, but without hiding behind excuses, we will go to AZ and give our all. Injury or not, we will fight, but we don't know how we are going to do certain things. Where will we train? How will we prepare? We’ll probably have one training session before the match, or maybe we won't even be able to do that. I don't know how we will prepare."

"We are trying to make people happy and give them joy, but I’ve started to feel that Shakhtar is being left alone. To be honest, this issue disturbs me. It is very difficult for any Ukrainian team to be successful in Europe under these conditions if the war continues, because we cannot rest and we cannot prepare. I believe it is contrary to human health."