Zorya Luhansk defender Roman Vantukh commented on the 4-2 victory over Obolon Kyiv in the 11th round of the Ukrainian championship and assessed his team's prospects this season.
- "The game with Obolon, in my opinion, was not so easy for us," says Roman Vantukh, smiling, "But we were ready for the confrontation with Obolon, we analysed it, we knew how this team works. However, as you can see, everything was not so simple. "Obolon created a lot of problems for us, especially in the first half when they scored two goals. In recent matches, we have not conceded so many.
- What happened at the moment of the penalty?
- It was a very simple situation: I just played recklessly. We need to look at that moment from the outside, but in hot pursuit I can't say that there was any kind of a rough foul - a push. At that moment, everything was in motion. What I'm saying is that we invented that game episode for ourselves. It's not the merit of Obolon's attacking unit that they opened our defence somewhere.
- When you analysed the opponent before the match, what did you pay attention to? Can you reveal your plans for the game?
- When we analysed the opponent's game, we saw that they play with five defenders who move far forward on the flanks. For example, Nagiev did that on my flank.
That's why the coaches set us the task of creating a majority on the flanks faster, with the help of Horbach and Yatsyk. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. It happened that we were slow with the ball, so we made a lot of mistakes. Personally, I passed the ball several times, and it was cut off.
But we won - that's the main thing. The game will be forgotten - the result will remain. I am happy with it. We will continue to improve the game.
- Can we already say that Zorya is overcoming the crisis?
- One hundred per cent. Every day we are getting stronger, we understand each other better. At training sessions, I can already see the understanding, sometimes something fantastic happens that we play up. However, I can't say that about the game yet. If we scored four goals against Obolon, it means we played well in attack. It's great that our striker scored today. I hope that Guerrero will feel confident in his abilities, and we will score more in the future.
- What has changed in Zorya's training process? They say that more theory has been added?
- Physically, we were ready. As for the theory, we have had it since the first day Valerii Kryventsov came to the club. However, tactical training, I'll tell you, is not so easy. You can't pick it up in two days - it takes time. Add to this the fact that we had several legionnaires. You know, it's like Google Translate. You translate, but it can understand in a different way. For example, to Jean-Claude, who has recently joined us, I constantly suggest something, although perhaps not in the way he understands it. All this takes time.
- Did the fact that the Conference League game with Maccabi was postponed affect your preparations in any way?
- Not at all. On the contrary, we will now have more time to adequately prepare for the next game in the UPL. We go from game to game. I think everything will be fine for Zorya.
- Zorya has already played several games in the Conference League. Can we already say that the team will definitely advance from the group?
- Getting out of the group is our goal. "Zorya is not some upstart team, it is a regular participant in European competitions. That's why we set ourselves high goals, and we'll see how we do from match to match.
Oleksandr Petrov