Dynamo Kyiv defender Oleksandr Syrota commented on his team's 3-1 win over Metalist Kharkiv in the 23rd round of the Ukrainian league, in which he opened the scoring with a long-range shot.
Oleksandr Syrota. Photo by O. Popov- An atypical goal for a central defender. How did you dare to shoot from a distance?
- I often stay after training, and Tsarenko and I practice such shots - and, as you can see, this work has paid off.
- In the first half, it seemed that the ball was stubbornly not going into the opponent's goal. "Dynamo attacked a lot, but it did not come to one hundred per cent chances...
- It was difficult because they played with a five-defender formation, so it was impossible to overcome such a tight defence. It's good that I managed to take the shot so well and score. If the score had lasted a little longer, it would have been very difficult in the future. When we were already two goals up, we had to play reliably, as the coaches emphasised in the dressing room, but we didn't do it the right way.
- How should we have played?
- We had to take control of the ball. We had one less player, so we had to play the match calmly, and if we had chances, we had to make them. Yes, Denys made a mistake, but it happens to everyone. It's good that we scored the third goal and brought the game to victory.
- As a defender, do you have an unpleasant feeling that you failed to keep the goal dry?
- It's a bit unpleasant, but that's football. It has happened, it will happen. Even when conceding, we have to score much more than our opponents
- Today, Lucescu stayed in Kyiv, with Oleksandr Shovkovskyi acting as acting head coach. How did the absence of the head coach affect the team?
- Mister was with us before we left for Uzhhorod, he set us up for the game - that is, he was with the team. We can say that today we played for him.
