Famous Ukrainian coach Serhiy Kovalets shared his expectations from the match of the 13th round of the Ukrainian championship between Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk in an interview with the UPL TV channel.
- Our classic confrontation has always been not passionless, but now we live in a different time. We can see that Shakhtar have changed in terms of personnel concept and rely on their own pupils. At the same time, the team shows quite decent football. As for Dynamo, everyone understood that last season was unsuccessful for them. And it was expected that with the return of Yarmolenko and taking into account that Lucescu stayed to leave as a winner, there should be other results.
- Dynamo have problems with the results now. How can it affect the principled meeting?
- "Dynamo" is a big club, they have fans all over the world. I think that the psychological pressure for the result will be more on Kyiv team. However, we know examples from England or Spain, when the result in the table is not interesting - it is important to win in the derby. But for Dynamo in the match with Shakhtar everything is important - the quality of the game, the result, and improvement of the tournament position. If defeat happens, it will be a very big nuisance. Although there are still a lot of matches ahead. On the other hand, it is important how the team is developing and whether the coaching staff can see whether the team is moving forward and has prospects.
- Has Shakhtar's new head coach Pušić managed to realise the importance of this match?
- It is important that Srna is around, who invited him. Judging by the players' words, they have accepted the coach, which is important, the atmosphere in the team has improved. Usually when a new coach comes, there is a rise. So we can expect that the team will be on the rise. Besides, from the words of Pusic we can understand that he wants to play aggressive football with ball control.
- And what kind of mood can Dynamo have?
- After a big portion of criticism and self-criticism, when Buyalski said that after such matches he would like to change his profession, I think, nobody will have problems with motivation.