On Sunday, August 28, in the nominally home match of the 2nd round of the Ukrainian Championship, Dynamo Kyiv lost to Dnipro-1 with a score of 0:3. The meeting was held in Lviv at the Arena Lviv stadium. Your attention is the post-match press conference of the head coaches of the teams.
Mircea Lucescu. Photo — A.PopovMircea LUCHESCU, Dynamo head coach:
- Why not Kyiv? Why do Shakhtar play in Kyiv, and Dynamo in Lviv?
— The decision to play here was a big mistake. I wanted two matches - with Dnipro-1 and with Zorya - we played in Kyiv. The guys left Ukraine two months ago, since then they have not seen their families. Therefore, I insisted on going to Kyiv.
Even in the second leg against Benfica, I felt that the psychological state of the players was not good. And for this reason, I also wanted us to go to Kyiv.
When you play without fans, there should be additional emotions that will allow the players to enter the match with a fresh mind. This was not the case today. The psychological state of the team was again bad. Probably, among other things, for the reason that the guys were not at home for too long, they did not see their relatives.
As for the match itself, it must be admitted that the opposing team was much more aggressive than us. Plus, the early replacement in our squad made some adjustments. Finally, we conceded a goal. We conceded again from the "standard", again, as in the match with Benfica, Besedin did not play to the end.
When you miss first, it plays very differently. After the first goal, Dnipro-1 began to act even more aggressively. The picture on the field immediately changed.
Well, in the second half there was practically no football - there were so many delays that the game itself was probably 15-20 minutes. These stops were intended to unnerve the players, so that everyone would be engaged in disputes, and not in the game. There was, in fact, no football after the break.
We are now in a difficult situation, but we must overcome this moment. I hope the return to Kyiv will contribute to this.
- Did Zabarny play his last match for Dynamo today?
- Why? Do you think that he may no longer be in the squad?
— No, we are talking about his possible transfer.
- Maybe this is my last game, but not Zabarny.
Alexander Kucher. Photo — A.PopovOleksandr KUCHER, head coach of Dnipro-1:
- Hard game. A very serious opponent confronted us today. Who will play in the group stage of the Europa League.
Therefore, we prepared very carefully for this game. But, of course, it was very difficult, because literally on Thursday we played in Cyprus in the Europa League. It took about 11 hours to get from there to here. So the main thing was to restore the guys physically.
They played well, of course. They closed the middle of the field, the zone. And at the same time, we took advantage of our chances in attack, scoring goals that were very necessary for us.
- Did you expect such a game from Dynamo?
- We knew about the strengths of the opponent, tried to neutralize them, and I think we succeeded.
Alexander POPOV from the stadium "Arena Lviv"
