On Saturday, 13 April, in the match of the 24th round of the Ukrainian championship Dynamo Kyiv defeated Oleksandriya away with the score 1:0. The meeting took place in Alexandria at the stadium "Nika". Here is the post-match press conference of the head coaches of the teams.
Oleksandr SHOVKOVSKY, Dynamo head coach:
- I congratulate our fans on the victory. And, of course, I would like to thank our defenders and defencewomen again for giving us an opportunity to play such matches.
You saw for yourself that there were air raids today that forced us to take cover. Somewhere it may have played to our advantage, based on the way events unfolded on the pitch. But the main thing is that in the end we got the result we needed. In the first half, we should have scored, we had good opportunities to do so. It is good that we showed character, fighting qualities, male persistence and responsibility not only for ourselves, but also for our teammate, who received two unnecessary yellow cards and was suspended.
Immediately I want to clarify the situation with Nesheret, with the reason why he did not come with us to Alexandria. He had a high fever the day before and was not preparing for this game. As far as I understand, he has certain problems with some infection.
The same for Sirota, who did not get in the application for the game today. He also had a high fever yesterday.
So don't look for a black cat in a room where there isn't one.
Александр Шовковский. Фото — А. Попов- After the match with LNZ today it was extremely important to get this result at any cost?
- Sometimes matches don't go according to the script. That was the case in our match with LNZ. With our full advantage we should have won, and with a comfortable score. But, unfortunately, our mistake affected the result.
As for today's match, we were well prepared for the opponent, we understood how he would play, and we understood what we could use to realise our strong qualities. We had opportunities to realise the chances we created. Unfortunately, we did not score. Then one yellow card, followed by the second one, and it turned the game upside down.
We had to rebuild and understand what and how to equalise our opponent's numerical advantage in the middle of the pitch. We had to be patient, reorganise, make certain changes and then look for our chances on the counterattack. I assured the guys in the forced breaks of this match that we would have such chances. In principle, it happened. I want to thank the guys for their effort, fighting qualities and willingness to work for their teammate. That's how matches are won. And not only matches.
Ruslan ROTAN, head coach of "Alexandria":
- In principle, everyone saw everything. The game developed in such a way that everything was in our hands: we were in the majority, we tried to realise it, but the class of Dynamo levelled our numerical advantage and we could not create anything more or less meaningful. We made wrong decisions, the ball did not move quickly. The score is 0:1, and it should be accepted.
- Can we say that the suspension played more into the hands of Dynamo?
- I agree with you. "Dynamo" after the suspension began to play more compactly, moved back. And this team has been using its chances very well when playing on the counterattack.
We tried to move the ball faster, we allocated free zones, we reached the third zone, but we did it very slowly. And we had almost no chances to take the opponent's goal. That's class. When we have it, the third zone is easier - there you need to take the game on yourself, in some situations to shoot on goal. And when there is not enough class, then there are problems.
- How do you comment on the episode with the goal for your team. Was there really no foul there?
- The referee looked at the VAR and made a decision. It's hard to talk about it. Every match I am dissatisfied with something. I, like everyone, want to win. But I must admit that the referee worked well today. He judged evenly, without mistakes. The penalty was justified. As for the episode with the goal, since the referee saw that there was no foul, it should be accepted. As well as the result.
Alexander POPOV from Alexandria
