On Saturday, 20 May, in an away match of the 27th round of the Ukrainian championship Dynamo Kyiv defeated Oleksandriya 5-1. The meeting was held in Oleksandria at the stadium Nika. The post-match press conference of the teams' head coaches is to your attention.
Oleksandr SHOVKOVSKY, acting head coach of Dynamo:
- It is good to play football when you manage to do a lot of things. But for that, first of all, you need to understand what to do, how to do it, take all the comments responsibly and fulfil everything we agreed before the game.
We studied our opponents. Ruslan Rotan's team play attacking football, trying to constantly attack and operate through the flanks - we knew all that, we were preparing for it and, in principle, we fulfilled the game plan. The only negative moment was the goal that we conceded because of our own mistake.
First of all, I am pleased with the performance of our players and the motivation with which they came out to play.
We live in a situation that today the match had to be suspended for more than 30 minutes, but the main thing that everything is good, we have finished the game, brought the victory.
Александр Шовковский. Фото — А.Попов- How can you compare those breaks due to air raids, when in the middle of the match you have to stop, leave the stadium to the shelter, then come back, warm up again and finish the rest of the match? How difficult is it all in terms of realising the goals set for the game?
- Football should be played with your head, you need to understand what you're doing, why and for what purpose. If the players understand this, they have a completely different attitude to their duties. They give their whole life to the game, and if they play with love, they won't come to work one day, they will just do what they love. But understanding what you're doing gives you the excitement, the confidence, the desire. If you run with gusto, you'll expend a lot less energy in the process. But for that to be the case, you have to understand what you are doing.
I am grateful to the lads that they took that 15-minute mark and the penalty time responsibly, they understood that they must not relax in any way. Every second on the pitch the players must do what they can, what they are ready for. That's exactly the attitude the boys showed today; they approached the end of the match very responsibly, and I am grateful to them for that.
As for the situation with the airborne disturbances, such is the reality. Unfortunately, our country is at war. We have to adapt to it. Thank you very much that this championship has begun at all. Otherwise I do not even know how our football clubs would exist then...
As they say, we have what we have. We move forward with thoughts of victory, with faith in our happy future.
Ruslan Rotan, head coach of Oleksandriya:
- We have to accept this defeat. Calmly analyze it. As for the game itself, the first half was quite normal. After the break, we were forced to play to the scoreline, began to open up, giving the opponents more spaces. And it is Dynamo's trump card to take advantage of such situations.
Руслан Ротань. Фото — А.ПоповIt is very hard for a team to take after such defeats. But we must understand that we have three crucial games ahead of us. We must draw conclusions after today's defeat. The mentality in our team is very poor. When you achieve success, you need to strive for more. But now it's like this: we win one game and already fly somewhere, calm down. So the number one task is to improve our mentality. At the same time we need to recover and as a result in the remaining matches to be the team, which strives for European competitions.
Aleksandr POPOV from the Nikastadium
