On Sunday, 31 March, in the match of the 22nd round of the Ukrainian championship Dynamo Kyiv defeated Vorskla Poltava with the score 5:1. The meeting took place in Poltava at the stadium "Vorskla" named after Oleksiy Butovskiy. Here is the post-match press conference of the head coaches of the teams.
Oleksandr SHOVKOVSKY, Dynamo head coach:
- First of all, I would like to thank our defenders and defencewomen for what they do, for protecting our country, for giving us the opportunity to play football and giving them positive emotions.
Secondly, I would like to congratulate all Ukrainian fans on the fact that the Ukrainian national team has solved such an important task, reached Euro 2024, and thus showed that no matter how difficult it was for us, we will fight until the end, until our Victory!
I would like to thank our Air Defence Forces, who give us the opportunity to hold matches. You have seen for yourself how long we had to wait for the air alert to go off today.
As for the game itself. Matches are always difficult after returning from the national teams. A long journey home, complicated logistics. In addition, our "national team" this time spent a lot of emotions. After all, all our national teams played at a high level. The guys spent a lot of energy and emotions, and today we lacked emotions somewhere. But we constantly tuned the guys to the fact that after returning from the national team matches are always difficult. I am grateful to the players that they approached it with understanding. Today it was difficult for us, but the team fulfilled the game plan that we had.
The final score does not reflect the events and actions that were on the football field today. Objectively speaking. Just the realisation from our side was at a high level today. We should have scored the sixth goal, but we did not, we missed a counterattack and conceded ourselves.
- Today there was a coaching confrontation between former goalkeepers - you and Sergiy Dolganskiy. Do you think it will become a trend?
- I don`t know. We'll see how it will be. We have a very long history with Sergei Dolganskiy. Back in the junior national team of Ukraine we played together when we were 16-18 years old. Since then, we always followed each other and wished each other success.
Yes, today there was such a confrontation. But it is important to take into account the conditions in which we were preparing for this game. 12 of our players left for the national team and we had only 8 players of the first team at our disposal. We involved the guys from our U-19 team in the training process. It was not easy. And for these three days, which we had for training after the return of the national team players, we could not even work on anything: we had to restore the guys. At the same time, it is always difficult for us to play in Poltava. This is a football city, there is a good team, which I wish only success in the next matches.
"Vorskla" could have a full preparation in today's game, and we understood that our opponent today will be better than us in physical terms. Therefore, we had no right to lose in motivation, desire and realisation of chances. Today we managed to do it. We work a lot on these components.
And I wish Sergiy Dolganskiy only victories in this field, except for the matches with Dynamo. (Smiling).
- Yarmolenko came on at the score 3:0 in favour of Dynamo. Would he have appeared on the pitch in other circumstances? Was he ready to play at this level in any case?
- He was ready to appear on the pitch, but he was not ready to play the whole match. His substitution was planned before the match, we planned to release him for 15-30 minutes, depending on the events on the pitch. But, I repeat, his substitution was planned. He has a very difficult period of rehabilitation under his belt, but his desire and authority in the team are of great importance.
Сергей Долганский. Фото — А.ПоповSergiy DOLGANSKY, acting head coach of Vorskla:
- I think everyone could see everything today. We have chances, but we do not realise them. The fact that we have them is good. From the negative - we easily concede goals.
- In this match you had to play without several key players. Did it affect you?
- We will not complain: we play with those who we have. This is a chance for those who come on the pitch.
- Why did you start making substitutions only when the score was 0:3?
- What substitutions could we have used to strengthen the game?... At half-time the score was 0:1 with equal play in the first half. We conceded that goal from a half-chance, and we had good chances to score.
- Was the penalty awarded deservedly?
- I did not see the episode. Besides, it is a question for the referees.
- But this penalty can be called a turning point?
- I think so. This penalty "closed the game".
- Does the prestige goal give any positive emotions?
- It is better than if we had not scored it. Again, today we had a lot of unrealised chances.
Oleksandr POPOV from Poltava
