On Saturday, 11 May, in the match of the 28th round of the Ukrainian championship Dynamo Kyiv lost to Shakhtar Donetsk with the score 0:1. The match took place in Lviv at the Arena Lviv stadium. Here is the post-match press conference of the teams' coaches.
Oleksandr SHOVKOVSKY, Dynamo head coach:
- What was missing for your team to win today's match?
- Scoring goals.
- In a positive sense, the second half of Dynamo's performance differed significantly from the first half in terms of creativity. Does it mean that you did not guess with the starting lineup?
- I don`t know whether I guessed or not. Unfortunately, there is no result. So, we can say that I didn't guess. On the other hand, had the referee not awarded the penalty, it would have been a completely different game.
But we realised that Shakhtar are a good team, who play attacking football. Accordingly, we need to prepare not only to play forward, but also to build our defence.
It is a shame to lose games like this, when everything is decided by one penalty. Which, in my opinion, was questionable. Especially, before it was, I think, a foul on Buyalskiy. But we have what we have. Unfortunately, we missed a lot of points in the first part of the championship. So it's like this.
Oleksandr Shovkovskiy. Photo — Y. Yuriev- What will your team focus on in the remaining part of the season?
- Let me answer it this way. Any defeat is not the end. Any win is not the final success. You have to have the courage to keep playing no matter what happens. We're born with the desire to win. Always. We grind our will, our character every day in the training process. And the victory itself is a matter of honour. That's not my words, Winston Churchill said that. I don't know what Dario meant when he said "Hold on!". Maybe it had something to do with the words above. I don't know.
- What should Dynamo do over the summer to become champions next season?
- This is not a final press conference, but a press conference dedicated to the just-concluded match. We will make immediate conclusions later, we need to play two more matches. We prepare for every game. We work out moments, we have a plan, a strategy.
What do we need? There are a lot of things that we can talk about, there are a lot of things that are difficult to talk about. Immediately after the end of the season the preparation of the national team will begin. And there is also the Ukrainian Olympic team, U-19 national team, U-21 national team. A lot of Dynamo Kyiv players will train in these national teams. And we need to understand how we will prepare for the next season under these circumstances. Because so far there are a lot of questions.
An international tournament is being organised, which will be very interesting for the players, but according to the schedule, right after the end of the Ukrainian championship some of our players can be invited there. That is, they will immediately go to the tournament. Which will end on 17 June. And our team should gather after the holiday in the 20s. That is, without a pause, without rest, without recovery, these guys have to start working. How to prepare them under these circumstances, I do not know yet. Maybe it makes sense not to let anyone go anywhere, so that the guys have a good rest, prepare well and be ready for the Olympics by the time it starts? I don't know, these are just thoughts for now.
And there is also a new European Cup schedule, which includes matches in January, in December.... The logistics are not clear yet, but there are a lot of things in my head. And how it will be, I don't know.
Marino PUSIC, Shakhtar head coach:
- This is my first title in Ukraine and therefore it is very important for me, a very special moment for me, I have special feelings right now.
First of all, I would like to thank my family. Also thanks to the club management. Special thanks to the players of our team for doing everything that we asked of them, for all the hard work done. They are real heroes for me.
I tuned my team for the derby. A derby is always a special match. In such games you need a lot of attention, and there are always a lot of emotions. Our opponent today had nothing to lose, but we did. Therefore, we tried to play both in defence and in attack. We had to balance: both to score and not to concede.
Oleksandr POPOV from Arena Lviv
