Former Dynamo Kyiv midfielder and now a famous Ukrainian coach Serhiy Kovalets commented on the victory of Poltava Vorskla over Zhytomyr Polesya (1:0) in the semi-final of the Ukrainian Cup.
"The coach of the Zhytomyr team Sergei Shishchenko said that there will be a fight, a massacre. But, frankly speaking, in the actions of players "Polesie" in the first half, I did not see emotions. Or it was due to excessive excitement, or something else - it's hard for me to say.
There were quite a lot of spectators at the stadium, but there was an impression that "Polesie" players did not know what to do on the football field. Even the fans sitting on the stand next to me were surprised: where were the emotions, where was the pressure, where was the desire to win? After all, "Polesie" was playing at home.
However, even before the match I told my friends that "Vorskla" would win 2:1 in regulation time. Poltava scored a good goal in the first half: Stepanyuk threw to Myakushko (by the way, the players of the youth national team of Ukraine, who in the past decade played under my leadership), who made a productive strike. And in the midst of the second half, an air raid was sounded, after which the game continued.
Having made a series of substitutions, Shishchenko freshened up the game quite well, and if Budkovskiy had converted the penalty, things could have turned out differently. Perhaps we would be talking about a completely different result. But goalkeeper Isenko, who led "Vorskla" to the final, worked perfectly. With what I congratulate the Poltava team. Now in Rivne an interesting duel for the honourable trophy is expected," Sport.ua quoted Kovalets as saying.