After his side's 2-1 win over Chornomorets Odesa in the 25th round of the Ukrainian Premier League yesterday, Dnipro-1 head coach Oleksandr Kucher raised the issue of penalties. It will be recalled that in this match, a dubious penalty was awarded to Odesa (the offence took place outside the penalty area), which Artem Dovbyk failed to convert.
"In fact, I don't understand why the first goal was cancelled, the moment was very specific. It's one thing to know whether there was a penalty, there may have been a moment before the penalty area and, as they say, 50-50.
Everyone says, by the way, that we take a lot of penalties, but on the contrary, we don't get clear penalties in our favour. In Oleksandriia, in the first spring match, in the first minute, we were not awarded a penalty, and it was sent off. Against Rukh, no penalty was awarded in our favour. And there are many such moments.
The fact is that we attack and are constantly in the opponent's penalty area, which is why they give penalties. You have to run there to get an 11-metre penalty, and if you don't run, then of course no one will give it. In the first half today, there was also a clear penalty for Chornomorets, but the referee did not award it.
You have to understand this. We also want to play and win. Call what you have and don't invent something," Kucher said.