Shakhtar Donetsk winger Ismaily has given his thoughts on the Champions League group containing his club and Inter, considering it to be a challenging set of fixtures.
Speaking to Brazilian broadcaster Lance!, the 31-year-old gave his thoughts on the difficulty of the group which also includes Real Madrid and debutants Sheriff Tiraspol.
Inter are set to face two of the opponents who they faced for the group stage of last year’s edition of the competition in the form of Shakhtar and Real, with new boys Sheriff taking the place of Borussia Monchengladbach as the fourth member of the group.
The Nerazzurri experienced disappointment last season, being knocked out of Europe by finishing last in their group, while Shakhtar also did not get the result they were hoping for, dropping down to the Europa League despite beating Real Madrid twice.
Ismaily expects this season’s group to be highly competitive once again, and his words will also be relevant to the Nerazzurri’s situation as they know they can take nothing for granted.
“We will face a very difficult group in the Champions League again,” the Brazilian said. “We know we will have tough matches, but our first focus is on Sheriff, who are also a good team and will be our first opponent.”
“We are preparing well and we hope to start the competition well. In the last Champions League we achieved important results playing in away games, but we didn’t do very well at home,” he went on. “I think for this season we need to get more points at home and try to get points away too.”
