Oleksandr Babich: "Dynamo thought more about not conceding. It is difficult to understand why the team's game was built in such

Famous Ukrainian coach Oleksandr Babich told what he thinks about the yesterday's return play-off match of the Conference League round between Turkish Besiktas and Dynamo Kyiv (1:0). Recall, on the sum of two meetings (2:3, 0:1), the Ukrainian team failed to qualify for the next stage and dropped out of the European Cup this season.

- I expected more from Dynamo Kyiv, - said Oleksandr Oleksandrovych. - I expected that Kyiv would try not to concede from the first minutes and play aggressively in front. And in the first 15-20 minutes Mircea Lucescu's wards played well in defence, but lacked a very important component - the attacking one. The Bilo-Syni counterattacks were extremely rare, the team thought more about not conceding.

It is difficult to understand why Dynamo's game was built in such a way, what was the coach's set-up for the match... It will be hard to find the culprits. It is clear that all the negativity will fall on Lucescu's head.

- What was the main thing Dynamo lacked to achieve the result?

- A striker. With all due respect to Vanatu, now he is not able to break through the defence of such teams as Besiktas. We also lacked Yarmolenko, who could add solidity to the attack. We must recognise a strict reality - Dynamo's kit is much inferior to that of Besiktas. And now, unfortunately, it is already a norm...

- What do you think about the goal conceded by Kyiv team?

- It is a clearly expressed personal goal. Abubakar's class worked - he is a very strong player individually. All Dynamo defenders were looking at the ball at that moment and nobody dared to go for a tackle.

- How will the departure from the European Cup affect Dynamo?

- It will be for the good... Judging by the composition of the Bilo-Syni, it is obvious that this team is not ready to play in three tournaments. Therefore, Dynamo will have to concentrate on the championship and the Cup of Ukraine.

- Is it possible to expect the coach's resignation at Dynamo?

- Such a radical decision can be beneficial only if the atmosphere in the team is unhealthy, when the players are clamped, dissatisfied with the coach and the situation in general. In principle, we have already seen such a situation at Dynamo - when Shovkovskiy became the manager for a while, and it brought good results. Otherwise, there is no sense to change the coach. We will wait for a pause in the championship and we will see. Any changes may happen either already in September or during the winter break in the season.

Semyon Semenchenko