Former Ukrainian national team player and now coach Valeriy Kryventsov shared his impressions of the first match of the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League between local Slavia and Dnipro-1 (3:0) yesterday in Prague
Valery Kriventsov- If we talk about the match in Prague, Slavia won legitimately. "Dnipro-1 was simply not ready for such football performed by the Czech team. "Slavia" played with Dnipro one-on-one all over the pitch, showed excellent "physics", and was able to fully realise their game plan.
- "Dnipro-1" was poorly prepared for this match, could Slavia make an unexpected surprise?
- Dnipro players may have known how Slavia would play, but they did not find any counterarguments. This result was influenced by many factors - the loss of some players, in particular Volynets, and a quick goal conceded. I was very upset about this loss, because Dnipro-1 still has a good squad.
- In the case of the first goal, Svatok made a mistake, who continued to make mistakes and was replaced at halftime....
- Svatok could not keep up with the fast players of Slavia. I note that coaches rarely change defenders, but in this case Oleksandr Kucher decided to take him off the game. I think that Svatok, who had previously missed matches due to injury, was not quite ready for the game.
- Another performer - Filippov, who was introduced as a player of Dnipro-1 only a day before the match and who had not had game practice for a long time before that, was hardly ready. Why did the coach decided to entrust him with a place in the starting line-up?
- Probably, Oleksandr Kucher had no choice. By the way, Filippov did as good a job as he could.
- Did the early loss of Tretiakov significantly weaken the game of Dnipro-1?
- Lednev replaced him, but they are different in style. Tretiakov is creativity, quickness. With his replacement Dnipro-1 lost a serious option - the team had no speed and no opportunity to throw the ball forward on the way out. Yes, then Pikhalenok came on the pitch, giving the team's actions more organised and more control of the ball. However, with the score 0:2, it was not easy for Pikhalenok to enter the game qualitatively.
- Do Dnipro-1 still have any chances for overall success in the confrontation with Slavia?
- To get back after the 0:3 defeat is almost unbelievable. Firstly, Slavia are playing very solidly now, the Prague team is on the move, demonstrating excellent physical readiness. Secondly, it is still unknown in what condition the Dnipro players will approach the second match - a difficult road to Ukraine, injuries....
Oleg Semenchenko
