Ukraine defender Yukhym Konoplya commented on the draw in the Euro 2024 qualifying match against England (1-1) on Suspilne TV.
Yukhim Konoplya. Photo: gettyimages.com- Today is probably one of the biggest matches of your career. What do you feel inside, was there a certain amount of jitters?
- There were a few other emotions. First of all, pride. I was very happy when I went out on the pitch and heard the applause, whistles, saw the fans, because I hadn't seen them for a long time. There was no wanderlust, because I had a clear understanding of what to do on the field. There was only responsibility.
- It seemed to me that you had such a great desire to move the ball forward that sometimes it caused mistakes, did it happen?
- Of course, we were in a bit of a hurry when we took the ball away, but that's normal. Someone may have had the strength and wanted to play forward, but didn't feel the general state of the team, but... It's all normal, everyone can make mistakes, there's nothing wrong with that.
- Can you replay the first goal? Was the link-up with Zinchenko a work in progress or did you intuitively feel each other?
- More intuitively, because we play in the same team, we communicate very well and know each other's wishes. For example, I knew in advance that someone would be there, either Sasha or Mikhail. And when I looked up, Sasha was there, and I found him with a pass.
- What was it like playing against England? Everyone noted that one of their strengths is their star power, the individual strength of each player, how do you play against them?
- Yes, they had a lot of star players, but we have a team. A team is much harder to beat than a few individual players. They have a very star-studded squad, many of them play in world-class clubs, but I think we prevented them from doing anything dangerous in attack as much as possible. They had control, yes, but there were no chances.
