The head coach of the youth national team of Ukraine Ruslan Rotan answered journalists' questions after the 2nd round of the Euro 2023 (U-21) group stage match with Romania (1: 0), which took place yesterday in Bucharest.
Ruslan Rotan. Photo by O. Vasylieva- We played a very good match. Big compliments to our players! I told the guys that I have no doubt that we have a team and character. We can do more, we need to work on it. Somewhere in the first 10 minutes of the match we were a little worried, and then the game was almost under our control. We had many chances to take the lead early.
- How did you support Vanat after the match, who came on as a substitute and earned a sending-off?
- We won this victory as a team, including with Vlad's help. But I told him that he punished himself. He has to control his emotions, be a professional, and ignore provocations. We are young, we are playing the U-21 tournament. It will be a very good lesson for Vanat. It is important that in the minutes that remained, our players gnawed out a result for him. He punished himself, and I give the guys a lot of respect. I think he will not allow this to happen in the future.
- In the second half, there were many episodes when we closed the Romanians in their penalty area. They saturated the centre very much, we had to stretch them. What is the most difficult thing for the team at such moments?
- In such moments, when there is an advantage and the ball does not go into the goal, the most important thing is to react to the loss of the ball, mistakes, when we immediately return the ball. Today it happened, the guys finally understood this, gave their last effort. You have to earn your luck, and they deserved it with their play, skill and character.
- Aren't you afraid that the victory over Croatia will not be credited to you because two players who were not supposed to play took to the pitch?
- I have already answered this question at the pre-match press conference. We have documents that we have sent to UEFA. We were given clear recommendations: we have to deal with the clubs that should allow these players to play in this match. Therefore, there were no problems, the issue has been resolved.
