The well-known Ukrainian coach Yuriy Virt, who is now heading Veres Rivne, shared his impressions of the 5th round match of the Nations League Armenia - Ukraine (0:5), which took place last Saturday in Yerevan.
— Yury Nikolayevich, please share your impressions of the game.
- Only positive ones. Ukraine deservedly won, showed good attacking football and scored five goals. Our team played reliably on defense and showed a good conversion of chances. I think the game plan was completely fulfilled.
They really needed this victory after an unsuccessful game with Scotland. Still, I want us to take first place in the group.
- Petrakov completely changed the starting line-up compared to the match against Scotland. Why do you think?
- In a week, the Ukrainian national team has to play three matches, and it is very difficult to do this with just the players. Today's match showed that we have a good clip. Yes, maybe the opponent is no match for us, but we have a good rotation - the players are almost of the same level.
I think Petrakov did the right thing by changing the composition. Now the head coach will have to think about what squad to send to Scotland.
- Petrakov also surprised with tactics, playing with three central defenders against a weaker team than Scotland. Why?
- I think, most likely, we will see this tactic with the Scots on September 27, perhaps with other players. Previously, Petrakov has already played with three defenders, so it cannot be said that this is a novelty. There were problems with the Scots, and he decided to return to this tactic. As you can see, she did not disappoint.
Now Petrakov will have to rack his brains for two days about who to put up for the final game with Scotland. All players who have shown themselves well have a chance to go to the base.
- Who surprised you from the players in today's match?
- It's very hard to single out someone in such a game, everyone played great, especially the players who came on as a substitute. The team went through the whole match in one breath.
- Who would you give the "Lion of the Match" award to - Zubkov, who scored a goal and two assists, or Dovbik, who scored a brace?
- Now a lot of criticism has fallen on me about Dovbik, so I will give the award to him (laughs).
- What impression did Ignatenko make on you, who received the highest score for the match from statistical portals?
- He has a great shot, he put a bullet in this match. All the players who came out today are top! They just mocked the Armenians. I am glad that all the players came out with great desire and no one pulled the blanket over themselves.
- Tymchik scored a goal and an assist. Do you think he will retain his place in the squad for the match against Scotland or will Petrakov release Karavaev?
- I think it will. Tymchik would definitely play for me, I am very impressed with this player.
- Dovbik scored a double. Who do you think should play with Scotland: him or Yaremchuk?
- I think, Dovbik, he is in very good shape now and looks great in Dnipro-1 in recent matches.
- Zubkov also scored and provided an assist. Will this help him keep his place in the base or will Mudrik come out?
- Hard question. My opinion is that, most likely, Mudrik will play. But if his game doesn't work out, then Petrakov will release Zubkov.
- What did you not like about the game between the Ukrainian team and Armenia?
- Still, there were small misunderstandings in defense when offsides were fixed on the verge. You need to work out the game in defense to automatism, correct these moments, and everything will be fine.
- The Armenians delivered 11 shots to our goal, which is quite a lot. In the first half, Kryvtsov was forced to grab his head.
- Yes, it was. It is this position that raises the most questions - who will play if we use the scheme with three defenders. Kryvtsov does not currently have a permanent match practice at Shakhtar, so there is a small problem here that Petrakov has to solve. Somewhere Krivtsov lacks this game practice.
— Is Ukraine so strong and Armenia so weak?
- Let's say that we are so strong. But this will need to be confirmed with Scotland. I want more stability so that there is no “swing”: failure is a good game and again failure. I understand that all games cannot be won, but we should have more games with a positive result than a bad one.
I hope that the game with Scotland in Glasgow was just an accident. Every team has failures.
- What is your prediction for the second match against Scotland?
- Only positive. Much will depend on how our players will prepare for the match, how they will impose, and what will be the implementation of scoring chances. If it is like today, then I believe in victory. We definitely deserved the first place in this group.
- What does Petrakov need to change so that the result in Glasgow does not repeat itself?
- We have no right to lose the fight to them, especially on the second floor, as it was in the first match. With the Scots, you need to play tighter and impose a fight. In the first match, we didn’t hit the target at all and created little. It will be a completely different football than with Armenia.
Petrakov will start from this when choosing players for the game. He is a smart coach and I am sure that he will analyze everything and we will get a result that will give us first place in the group.
Andrey Piskun