József Szabó: "Rangers" will be a kind of litmus test for Dynamo"

Former Dynamo Kyiv coach Jozsef Sabo shared his impressions of his former team's first match against Partizan Belgrade (6:2) in the 2nd qualifying round of the Champions League.

- I still didn't understand what team it was yesterday - Partizan? For me, Partizan is a club that used to be a champion, and back in the mid-seventies participated in games with our Dinamo. And now they came out and showed nothing. I don't even know where they picked up those players and what happened to them. This is exactly the case when you start to think: were the Serbs very weak, or are our players strong? (Smiles). "Partizan" was very weak, especially in the second half, when they released dark-skinned legionnaires. And where are they from? My God, where does this club find them?

Our guys - well done! True, there is too much lack of passes. They pass for 5-6, maximum 10 meters - and that's it. I do not even remember if there were long passes from one flank to the other, somewhere at 40 or 50 meters. There weren't. Everything is mostly short and short passes. And this is despite the fact that Pikhalenok, who played such soccer in Dnipro-1, came to the team.

- By the way, how do you evaluate his debut in Dynamo?

- He is good. Pikhalyonok played normally - he sees the pitch well, and he also scored a goal. In the second half, which he played in this match, he had a very good pass forward to Vanat coming out one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

But... Vanat... I can`t say yet that this is a great striker of Dynamo Kyiv level. If we compare what forwards the club had before, Vanat does not fit in any way. But if Oleksandr Shovkovskiy has no one else for this position, there is nothing to be done - so he is forced to put him in. We can only hope that Vanat is still young and will add to his soccer skills with time. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the kind of speed to rush forward with the ball, masterfully beat several opponents and score. He has a shot, but it's somewhere in the stands.

- After 6:2 Dynamo has a good chance to advance to the next round, isn't it true?

- Yes. Our guys are good: they scored six goals and could score as many more. But regarding the return match I think about this: when Dynamo play in Belgrade (and the match, as we know, will be held without spectators), I'm afraid that Putin's partners won't break into the stadium and commit illegal actions. I don't even know what could be there. We should take into account that we are going to a country that is friends with the Kremlin dictator.

- If Oleksandr Shovkovskiy's team manages to defeat Partizan on the aggregate of two matches, its opponent in the next round will be Scottish Rangers. What do you think about such a prospect?

- Oho-ho-ho-ho.... "Glasgow Rangers is a good team that plays hard and forceful soccer. It will be very hard in Glasgow, because there is a big spectator support there. The Scots play at home so much that they "carve" everything! Soccer in this country is such that its players go "one in one" and demolish! But nothing - let's see what kind of men we have now. "Rangers" just and will be a kind of litmus test to determine what exactly the Kyiv team is capable of.

Vyacheslav Kulchitsky