Andrii Yarmolenko: "We need to focus on team play in defence"

Dynamo Kyiv midfielder Andriy Yarmolenko summed up the results of his team's match against Chornomorets Odesa (2:3) in the 4th round of the Ukrainian championship, which took place in Odesa today.

- We expected a difficult game with Chornomorets. We analysed this opponent, we knew that they were a good team, that they play combination football. So, we were aware that they would play that way. Apparently, we lacked physical condition, because on Thursday we played 120 minutes with Aris, plus travelling, a long journey. Because of this, we didn't recover properly, which is why we got this result.

Of course, there were a lot of mistakes on our part, a lot of chances that we didn't take, and when you don't score, you concede. But it's not a big deal. I think this will be a lesson for us. We are moving on, nothing is over yet, the championship is long. The main thing is to draw the right conclusions from both victories and defeats.

- The previous match against Aris, which ended in a series of penalties, took a lot of not only physical but also moral strength. Do you have any emotions left for the match against Chornomorets?

- Of course, emotionally it is also not easy when you spend 120 minutes of a tense, hard game on the pitch, and then a penalty shootout. It's not easy physically and emotionally. Of course, it is difficult to recover, but what can we do? Now we are in a situation where we need to be patient. I apologise to our fans for this result, but this is football, and defeats also happen. We need to accept them with honour and move on. I repeat, nothing terrible happened, we need to keep our heads up and move on, because in four days we have another important game in the European Cups.

- Comment on the moment when you scored, how did you manage to do it?

- It's not interesting anymore because we lost. Now, I think, it doesn't matter.

- Were the goals conceded due to your own mistakes, or was it the merit of Chornomorets' players?

- Now it's hard to say about each goal separately, we need to analyse those moments, see who made the mistake. Of course, when you concede, it's the result of mistakes. I think the coaching staff will analyse the situations in which we conceded and point out our shortcomings. In the next matches we have to play better defensively, but this applies not only to the defenders, but to all the team players on the pitch, because we concede a lot, and we need to focus on team play in defence.