“This is a lesson for all of us,” van Leeuwen on Zorya’s departure from Universitati

Zorya Luhansk head coach Patrick van Leeuwen summed up the return match of his team against the Romanian Universitati (0:3) in the 3rd qualifying round of the Conference League, which took place last Thursday in Craiova. Recall that Zorya dropped out of the tournament by the sum of two meetings (1:0, 0:3)

"As for the quick missed goal (“Universitatya” opened the scoring in the match already in the 5th minute of the match — ed.), then we were ready for this. We expected new tactics from the opponent, but we hoped that we could quickly figure out how to counter them.

In the first half, we did not create a single chance to level the score before the break. We thought it would be better to start the second half. During the break, we discussed our mistakes, but were not able to fully correct them.

Roman Vantukh injury (the defender, rented by Zorya from Dynamo Kyiv, was forced to be replaced in the 30th minute of the meeting - ed.), of course it didn't help. But this happens often in football, and we must respond to it very quickly. We have football players who also play in this position. We wanted to quickly enter the game again, but, unfortunately, it was not possible.

Of course, we missed official matches, which Zorya didn't have for many months. Such a long period without playing practice takes its toll. This is a lesson for all our players, especially the younger generation. This game will teach us a lot," van Leeuwen said at the post-match press conference.