On Sunday, 25 February, in the match of the 18th matchday of the Ukrainian championship Dynamo Kyiv with the score 4:2 defeated Metalist 1925 Kharkiv. The meeting was held in Kyiv at the stadium "Dynamo" named after Valeriy Lobanovskiy. Here is the post-match press conference of the head coaches of the teams.
Oleksandr SHOVKOVSKY, Dynamo head coach:
- Today was the first match for the first team for Mikhavko. What do you think of his game? Was the second conceded goal his individual mistake or the team's one as a whole?
- First of all, I would like to say the following. The third year of full-fledged military aggression of Russia has begun. The war has lasted for 10 years, but it is the third year when Russia has broken into our country, bombs our cities, kills our inhabitants, takes away our children. This puts a strain on everything. I want to thank our defenders and defenders for giving us the opportunity to play football. We realise that football in our country now exists because of them. This is the first thing I wanted to say.
Mikhavko has great prospects, there is a great desire. He is a fairly young player. We fully support and help him. There is no one who does not make mistakes. This match, I think, Taras played at a high enough level.
As for your second question, we could have played better in that episode. It is a collective responsibility and a collective mistake.
- What is being done for Dynamo to start playing with spectators in the stands?
- Today we were as guests. I know that our club is negotiating, doing everything possible to have spectators at our stadium at our home matches. But this question is mostly not for me.
- Today Dynamo played two different halves. What did you say to the team at halftime?
- We had good chances to score goals in the first half. We understood how the opponent would play, we tried to put pressure on them. We did everything to make the opponent lose strength. We understood very well that patience - and there will come a time when we will be able to realise our chances. But, I repeat, we had enough chances in the first half to go into the break with a good score for us.
At halftime, we made small accents regarding our game, we let the guys understand that they do everything right, but we need to act a little faster. Otherwise, the team implemented the set-up for the game.
It is hard to start the match with such gifts to the opponent. But we must give credit to Viktor Skrypnyk's team. His teams always show quite interesting football, it is always difficult to play against them, and it is always difficult to win. It is pleasant that today we managed to do it.
- Dynamo under your leadership has already twice defeated Metalist 1925 with the score 4:2. Which version of Kharkiv team was more difficult?
- The main thing is that we won these two matches. But it is very difficult to start in the spring. All teams are functionally ready, all with their own developments - you do not realise what surprises the opponent can present. That's why today we emphasised our own actions, knowing the style of Skrypnyk's teams. I think we have prepared for this match quite well.
- When will Yarmolenko and Tymchyk return to the field?
- Yarmolenko started training, but now he has a small forced pause. Tymchyk is also starting to work in the general group. The kid, unfortunately, is out for two and a half, three months - he had an operation. Bilovar will return to training next week after a concussion.
Viktor SKRIPNIK, head coach of "Metalist 1925":
- It is very difficult to play against "Dynamo" first number one. But we tried, scored a goal, then we were patient. I am very grateful to the team. We look, first of all, at ourselves. We understand that today was not the most decisive match of the championship for us. But if we just "entrenched" and stood on our half of the field, it would be wrong. We strive to be a powerful team. We have been working together for only a month, but we have already improved something, I can see it. And above all, we want to improve our league position (now Metalist 1925 is in 12th place - editor's note).
"Dynamo" congratulations on the victory, but we can take a lot of positives from this game.
- What was the reason for replacing Garmash at halftime?
- There is a combination of factors. We need guys for whom there are no priorities. Garmash, Yurchenko, Imerekov - they are just like that. They have won, they know almost everything in football. But they are very impulsive. Maybe that's why we changed Garmash. He talks not only with opponents, but also with referees and coaches. This is his style. But Garmash is a very important player for us. Just his energy and impulsiveness could have led to the second yellow card. I did not want to play in the minority with such a powerful team as Dynamo, which, by the way, often happened with Metalist 1925 in the first round.
- What are the objectives of your team for the season?
- If we look at our standings, it does not please us, and it does not please the club management. So first of all we want to secure ourselves as soon as possible, so that there was no nervous struggle until the last round. But it will be difficult, "Minai" also played well today, and we have a match with them in the next round. It will be a game for six points. The match with Dynamo on the eve of such a battle is a good help.
In a word, we want to improve our tournament position as soon as possible.
Oleksandr POPOV from the stadium "Dynamo" named after Valeriy Lobanovskiy
