Head coach of Dnipro-1 Oleksandr Kucher commented on his team's 2-2 return match against Greek side Panathinaikos in the second qualifying round of the Champions League. It will be recalled that the Dnipro team failed to qualify for the next round on the basis of the sum of two meetings (1-3, 2-2) and will now continue their performances in the Europa League.
"Today we played what we planned. In the first match, we didn't succeed, but today, what we agreed on, we did.
I can say that we lost this confrontation in the first half of the first match, because the second half of the first match and today's match showed that we are capable of more and we can play with teams like Panathinaikos. I liked the guys today, I liked the way they played. At the pre-match press conference, I said that we have to show today that we are Ukrainians, and I think they proved it today. They deserve to be called Ukrainians. They did well, I am very grateful to them for this game.
Of course, the penalty in our team is the main episode that broke the whole game. What I saw at that moment was a 50-50 yellow card, and there was definitely no red card. And, you know, in the first match, we got the same 11-metre penalty when we scored the third goal. There's always something not in our favour.
Did the team get poisoned before the game? Yes, last night we had eight players and seven members of the club's staff poisoned at once. They were up all night. Some of them were still feeling sick in the dressing room and came out for the second half. In addition, the defender we replaced in the second half was also sick. He could not play anymore. Today there were many players on the pitch who were poisoned," Kucher said at the post-match press conference.