Tomorrow, on August 9, the return match of the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League between Dynamo Kyiv and Austrian Sturm will take place. On Tuesday in Graz, the head coach of the Ukrainian team Mircea Lucescu gave a pre-match press conference.
Mircea Lucescu- Game rhythm is an important component that your team is currently lacking. How will you get out of the situation?
- It will be very difficult, but not only because we do not have official matches, but also because the football players do not have their families, who are in Ukraine, Romania, Poland. We have to play these matches, but also the players have to see their families and children, spend time with them, but they don't have that opportunity - this is the most difficult thing. They must continue to play matches, because this is their profession, they must achieve results, because a lot depends on what the players will show on the football field. We are not playing at our own stadium, without the support of Ukrainian fans. We conduct classes on the same field where about 200 children train. But we must smile, because life goes on.
In addition, we are almost deprived of the opportunity to make transfers. Several of our players left the team, in particular, Verbic, de Pena, Vitinho and others, so we continue to train with the remaining group and count on the graduates of the Dynamo Academy. All Ukrainians are now in our team, plus the Pole Tomasz Kendzera, whose wife is Ukrainian, and she decided to stay in Ukraine, which is good for us (smiles).
- A 1:0 score in your favor in the first match leaves high chances for extra time in the second leg...
- I see the problem in something else: we played the first match with Fenerbahce at home, now with Sturm, and if we go further, we will play with Benfica at home too. This is wrong, because the opponents have the opportunity to play 120 minutes on their field, and we don’t have such a chance - this is another difficulty for us. Indeed, 1:0 is not so much, “Sturm can win back, but I hope it won’t come to that. It's not easy to play two extra-times away because, for example, the Fenerbahce fans were incredible, they created a great atmosphere in the stands. And we are nominally supported in home matches only by women and children who left Ukraine for Poland during the war. Of course, it is important for the players to feel the fans behind them, who drive them forward. This is another big problem for the coach and the players who are forced to play in such conditions. But the more fantastic the victory will be, we will experience double joy.
