On Thursday, 17 August, in the return match of the 3rd qualifying round of the Conference League, Dynamo Kyiv defeated Greek Aris with the score 2:1 (the first match ended with a 1:0 victory of the Greek team), and in the penalty shootout won the upper hand (6:5) and, thus, advanced to the next round of the tournament.
The meeting was nominally a home game for the Ukrainian team, but because of the war it was held in Bucharest at the Giulesti stadium. Here is the post-match press conference of the head coaches of the teams.
Mircea Lucescu. Photo - A.PopovMircea LUCHEU, Dynamo head coach:
- A difficult game. Before the match I said that we play against a difficult opponent with experienced players in the squad, who have a lot of Bundesliga, APL, La Liga matches behind them. These are mature players. So Aris had a superiority in experience. But we played honourably. And I think we won deservedly.
I want to thank the fans for their support. We played on a neutral pitch, but you could feel the support of local football fans and Ukrainians. Thank you! You helped us. And we invite you to our game with Besiktas in the next round of the Conference League, which will be held here next Thursday.
- What were your emotions during the penalty shootout?
- It's been a long time since I've had an extra-time and penalty shootout in my career. The last time, if I am not mistaken, it happened when I coached Shakhtar and we played against Dynamo Kyiv. So, of course, there were emotions. But the main thing is that everything ended well.
I have a lot of experience in football. It helped me to make the right decisions. It is very difficult to surprise me with something, I have gone through a lot in football.
- What do you expect from the matches against Besiktas, your former team?
- I worked at Besiktas for a good part of my career, I was loved there. I had success there. In a way, I will be pleased to meet this team again on the football field.
I would like to see our fans in the stands in large numbers in our home match, because I have no doubt that there will be an impressive number of Besiktas fans here: a lot of Turks live and work in Bucharest. I hope that today each of the fans who were at the stadium went home with a piece of positivity from our victory. We are looking forward to seeing you all at our game with Besiktas. I think the fans who supported us here today now feel a part of our victory, because they really helped us a lot.
- Today you can say you have a triple victory. You and Dinamo passed Aris, your son Razvan passed Hajduk with PAOK, and your wife Nelly is happy for both of you.
- First of all, my wife Nelly suffered in this situation. She was torn between two stadiums today. She didn't come to our match to be able to support our son from a distance.
I'm probably the happiest person in the world right now. Because both my husband and my son won for my wife. Razvan and I would like to get to the group stage and to be in the same group with our teams. That's what I'm sure Nelly wants too.
But we got a very difficult opponent in the next round. There were options to get lower level teams, but the reality is what it is. We have to prepare for the matches against Besiktas.
Tomorrow we will be on the road almost the whole day. We fly to Chisinau, from there we go by bus to Odessa, on Sunday we play there with "Chornomorets", and on Monday we return to Bucharest.
- How would you comment on the emotions and gestures of your team players after the final whistle? (Question of the Greek journalist).
- You must understand the emotions of our players. Because you must have seen the banners of Aris fans during the first match in Thessaloniki, directed against Ukraine. Of course, I cannot agree with some of the gestures that our players showed on the pitch, but I understand them perfectly. The way Aris fans behaved led to the way our players reacted.
Апостолос Терзис. Фото — А.ПоповApostolos Terzis, Aris head coach:
- Today's result is unfair for Aris because we deserved to qualify for the playoffs after two games. We were unlucky today. We made a mistake at the end of the game, allowing Dynamo to score the second goal. We knew that Kyivians would press us hard in the first twenty minutes, so our team tried to play at the expense of long passes. "Dynamo" is a skilled team, but we controlled the game as we wanted.
In extra-time we created more goal chances, even playing in the minority. We were the best on the pitch and created enough chances to score. But that's football, in the penalty shootout we were also unlucky. I would like to congratulate my players because they gave everything today on the football pitch. They deserved to go further.
I would also like to thank our fans who came here to support us. I think that what happened after the final whistle is a disgrace for such a big club as Dynamo. I mean the Kyiv players, who ran to celebrate the victory in front of our fans. We are against violence, but such a reaction from the opponent does not colour them. It is a great shame. Thanks again to our fans.
Alexander POPOV from Bucharest
