Vasyl Sachko, the former coach of Vorskla Poltava, has revealed what he expects from his former club's two-match clash with Dila Georgia in the 2nd qualifying round of the Conference League.
Vasyl Sachko"Five seasons ago, Vorskla would have been the undisputed favourite. But nowadays the times are different. All teams in Europe know how to play football now. Almost every team has good legionnaires.
But, despite everything, I believe that it is Vorskla who should emerge victorious from the confrontation and move on. It will be very difficult, but Skrypnyk's boys have to prove that they have come to Europe for a reason, not just for one game.
It is up to Viktor Skrypnyk to decide what tactics Vorskla should choose for the game. However, in the first game, we need to try to make a good start before the away game. I think we shouldn't shut down in defence and play defensively, but try to impose our game on the opponents. Act from a position of strength. But at the same time, we need to rationally distribute our own forces and not rush forward, because you can be exposed to a retaliatory attack.
It's hard to say anything before the first game against Dila, because Vorskla hasn't played a single official game this season. It's not clear what the condition of certain players is. Whether or not Skrypnyk managed to play the right schemes.
I am confident that Dila's head coach, our compatriot Andrii Demchenko, has carefully analysed Vorskla's game. I have no doubt that he followed the games of the Ukrainian Premier League even before it became clear that he would have to play against Vorskla.
Dila has a good Ukrainian goalkeeper in Yevhen Kucherenko, who was largely responsible for the Georgians' victory over a difficult team from Slovakia (Demchenko's men defeated DAK in two games - 1-2, 2-0 - ed.) in the first qualifying round. Dila has a good forward with a Ukrainian passport - Mykola Kovtalyuk. Demchenko has several strong Africans at his disposal, and three Brazilians play for the team from Gori. Their names are not well known, but they are all experienced.
Viktor Skrypnyk's main pain is the loss of two key players before the start of the new season: Albanian Taulant Seferi, Vorskla's top scorer last season, left, it is clear that he was lured to the UAE with money, and another good attacking player, Denys Oliinyk, left the team, so there will be less potential in the attack.
Prediction: I will be rooting for beautiful football, no matter how trite it may sound. I sincerely wish the Poltava team to win. Now it is very difficult for our clubs to play European Cup matches, because all of them are away.
I hope, I hope that Vorskla will not lose in Poland. There are prerequisites for that, because Andriy Demchenko's team definitely do not look stronger. And the fact that they have more game practice at the moment may, on the contrary, be a disadvantage rather than a plus. Vorskla's players are not burdened with official games, so they should be fresher," Sachko said.
