On Saturday, 23 September, in the match of the 8th round of the Ukrainian championship Dynamo Kyiv defeated Cherkasy LNZ away with the score 4:2. The meeting was held in Cherkassy at the stadium "Cherkassy-Arena". Here is the post-match press conference of the head coaches of the teams.
Mircea LUCHEU, Dynamo head coach:
- A very difficult match. But we were preparing for such a match, because we studied the opponent properly and knew how LNZ plays. We watched the matches of this team with Ruh and Dnipro-1. This is a fast team, which plays very dangerously on the counterattack. I asked the guys not to give opportunities to the opponent to realise their counterattacks.
LNZ is a very motivated team, because it entered the Premier League for the first time. Yes, in itself it is not experienced, but the players in its squad - with experience. In general, today LNZ had a lot of motivation to adequately oppose Dynamo.
I asked the team to score a goal quickly. We managed to do it. Then we had many opportunities to double the score, but unfortunately we did not take advantage of them. In the end it turned out that LNZ started to attack more and had good chances at our goal. In short, the fact that we failed to score the second quick goal made it difficult for us.
- Are there any plans to reinforce the defensive centre of your team?
- It is not a problem to sign someone. The problem is to keep the newcomers. We have examples of Ramires, Lonwijk, who were ready to play in Ukraine, but after a few shellings of the occupants expressed their desire to leave. Their families asked them to come back.
We have good players, we give a chance to young people. Today Malysh, Bilovar, Diallo, Ramadani played. Our main current problem is high injury rate. Vivcharenko, Shepelev, Tymchyk, Shaparenko - all of them are injured and unfortunately, we can`t count on them now. However, I hope that in a fortnight all these guys will be in the line.
Мирча Луческу. Фото — А.ПоповIn addition, today we have a problem with Popov. He has been injured lately. He plays 3-4 games, and the situation repeats. Now his body is not ready for a longer distance.
- How do you evaluate Brazhko as a replacement for Sidorchuk?
- I have already said that Sidorchuk is a Dynamo legend, he has done a lot for our team. I think, after his contract with Westerlo expires, he will return to Dynamo. Either as a football player or in some other capacity. It was very difficult for Sidorchuk psychologically during this year and a half. His family lived in Warsaw, and he lived in Kyiv. And his family is big, he has four children. It was psychologically hard for Serhiy not to see them, his children demand their father.
Oleg DULUB, head coach of LNZ:
- Emotions? Disappointed and upset. The game was on a counter course. Luck could have smiled both on us and Dynamo. Today we had a very good chance to get points.
We have been analysing Dynamo during the whole week, we knew everything about everything. Today we managed to completely switch off Vanata from the game. Yarmolenko had only one moment. But he realised it. This is skill.
Why did we fail in the last third of the match? Three reasons. The first - psychological attitude. The second - lack of concentration and discipline. In the first half of the match we played much better. But here, when the score was 2:3, for some reason, instead of raising the line as high as possible, we huddled to our own goal. And the third reason is the substitutions. Here, of course, I am fully responsible. The substitutions just didn't work today.
Oleksandr POPOV from the stadium "Cherkasy Arena"
