Vorskla defender Ihor Perduta commented on the team's appearance in the final of the Ukrainian Cup.
- I caught myself thinking that perhaps the big defeat to Dynamo in the last round of the UPL championship - 1:5 somewhere additionally stimulated the maximum motivation for the cup confrontation. I understand that these are different tournaments, but the victory over the Polish team allowed to rehabilitate for the defeat by Dynamo.
- By the way, why were Kyivians so convincing in that match?
- Dynamo players are improving with each round, but the main thing is that in Poltava they realised almost all the chances, while we did not. Although we quite often created a threat at the gates of the guests.
- As they say in such cases, after the match there was no showdown?
- There was a working atmosphere in the locker room after the final whistle, everyone understood what happened. We had to seriously work on the mistakes, because Dynamo scored quite easily and to approach the cup game in Zhytomyr in full strength.
- Moreover, given the tournament position of "Polesya" and "Vorskla" they could get to the international arena only through the cup tournament.
- Therefore, the attitude to yesterday's match was like to the final one. Of course, we are happy that we took the lead.
- Did "Polesie" surprised you in any way?
- No, our coaching staff had information about the opponent and we were well prepared. In particular, we played personally with the leader of the hosts' attack Filip Budkovskiy only when playing standard positions. In general, given that the hosts only occasionally threatened our possession, they played reliably in defence. We took our chances at the other team's goal.
- Did you expect to win?
- I think so. The hosts dominated in teamwork, more often created dangerous chances. When Polishchuk had the right to take a penalty at the end of the match, our goalkeeper Pavel Isenko was at his best. I believe that he was the hero of the match.
- What did coach Sergiy Dolganskiy say after the final whistle?
- He thanked for the game, said that we did a good job, but specified that there was no time to rest on our laurels, because next Monday is another calendar match with Kryvbas.
- Vorskla players know that only winning the Cup of Ukraine gives the right to play on the international arena in autumn?
- Yes, that's why we have nothing to do but to beat Shakhtar in the decisive match in May. It doesn't scare us that the Pitmen are considered favourites. Cup competitions have their own laws. I remember that in 2009, many experts also favoured Shakhtar in the final, but Vorskla were stronger then. Besides, there is hope that our leading players Volodymyr Chesnakov and Oleksandr Sklyar will soon return to action.