The central match of the 11th round of the Ukrainian championship will be a confrontation in Kyiv, where Dnipro-1 will visit Dynamo. The UPL press service spoke to Dnipro-1 central defender Eduard Sarapiy ahead of the meeting with one of the most titled football clubs in Ukraine.
- Eduard, on Sunday you will play against Dynamo after a break in the league. How did you spend this period? How intense was the preparation for the upcoming match?
- We are preparing for a very tough opponent. Games against such teams are always watched by people, so of course we would like to do well and win. The break for the national teams' matches went well: we had a weekend off, then we had training sessions, some of them twice a day, so we are approaching the match against Dynamo ready both physically and tactically.
- Dynamo's leading players in attack are Vladyslav Vanat and Vitalii Buyalskyi. Have you already figured out how to stop them?
- We have already analysed their actions, but it remains to be seen whether they will play against us. There is also a problem with Yarmolenko's absence, and it is likely that Benito will appear on the right wing. So, it is too early to think how and against whom to act. Let's look at their line-up and then decide what kind of game model we will use.
- With the arrival of Yuriy Maksymov, your team has gained confidence and started scoring more often. What has changed within the team?
- There have been minor changes within the team. The coaching staff's requirements have simply changed, so we try to play more aggressively, to be in pressure in the opponent's half of the field and to play more as the first number. In general, there have been no changes.
- Does Dnipro-1's position in the standings affect your morale in any way, or do you understand that the postponed matches will allow you to score points?
- It doesn't affect us in any way. In recent games, we have made significant gains, we have the positive result we wanted. Yes, we had a bad start to the season, but we are gradually levelling our position and climbing as high as possible in the standings.
- In general, how would you rate the current championship compared to the previous one?
- In this championship, the class of teams has become more equal. There are no more obvious outsiders and the championship has become more interesting. And the current leaders of the championship provide intrigue. Therefore, I think that both the middle and the finish of this tournament will be very interesting.