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Donetsk - President of FC Shakhtar Donetsk Rinat Akhmetov has said that his team will do its best to defeat Borussia Dortmund. 

“Borussia is a very strong team, which plays beautiful, attacking football. But we’ll move heaven and earth to progress to the quarterfinals. Players have to give it their all, and even more, to make their fans happy,” Akhmetov told reporters during Shakhtar’s open training session on Tuesday.

When asked whether Shakhtar will have any problems with defense, he said that he would like Borussia to experience these problems.

“I think both teams play some spectacular attacking football. I believe that tomorrow [on February 13] our players will show their best qualities and cause Borussia’s defense a lot of problems. Hopefully, those problems will result in a good outcome,” Akhmetov said.

He said that his team must qualify from the Champions League round of 16 regardless of its opponents.

When asked by Interfax-Ukraine whether deals on the sale of Willian to Russia’s Anji and the purchase of Taison from Metalist Kharkiv were profitable, Akhmetov said that “for us the sports performance is primarily beneficial.”

“I always want to listen to the heart of the player and his inner voice. That’s important to me,” he said.

“We had a clause in the contract: EUR 35 million. If you remember, even six months ago, in the summer: Chelsea, Tottenham, we were negotiating. I said: ‘If a club pays EUR 30 million, then I will give Willian the opportunity to leave the club. They didn’t pay us EUR 30 million. Today there was an offer from Anji: 35 million [euros]. I told this to Willian through his agent. I said: ‘Anji offers EUR 35 million. What do you want? It’s not the biggest dream of mine to sell a player to Anji. I think you have to play for Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester [United] – Europe’s top clubs. But I’ll respect your choice,'” he added.

Akhmetov said that he did not want “to ruin Willian’s sports athletic motivation.”

“In that situation I thought that if Willian really wanted and believed in himself, he would come out and beat Borussia on his own. And he will be worth 50 [million euros] then! The club will receive 30 [million euros], and everything above that will go to Willian. I said: ‘I will respect your choice.’ He says, ‘I’m going to Anji,'” he said.

He said he preferred a motivated Taison or Douglas to an unmotivated Willian. Akhmetov also expressed confidence that Taison and Douglas would not yield in terms of quality of the play to Willian, but this transfer will make Shakhtar stronger.

Akhmetov also thanked Willian for all he did for Shakhtar and wished him success at his new club.