Ukraine midfielder Taras Stepanenko commented on the defeat from the Czech Republic (2:3) in yesterday's match of the 2nd round of the Nations League.
Taras Stepanenko
- I think somewhere we have some uncertainty now, when there is no result. Let's just say that we try to play easier somewhere so that we don't get goals, and it turns out that today we scored from two outs.
We were preparing that the Czechs would throw outs, we sorted it out and we got two goals from outs. We also prepared for the standards with Albanians and we got a goal.
It happens in soccer, as well as in life, when you do something, but not everything works out, and you start to look in yourself, in the team, you try to play simpler, more concentrated, try to compensate for some soccer beauty with some pragmatism.
But it turns out that you still concede such unnecessary goals, and it leads to the fact that there is no result. If we take the 2nd half, we had enough chances with the Albanians and today, but somewhere there is no something soccer.
I saw that the Czechs were not confident. Yes, they scored two goals, but in the 2nd half we completely outplayed them. In my opinion, we should have gotten more in this game.
Penalty in our goal? There's a VAR, and such a moment... As for me, it's not a penalty. I say: we are like the Scots refereeing... I remember, we played with the Slovaks, Pyatov scored a goal, the referee blew the whistle for a foul. And now. Such a moment: the ball was flying, there was a struggle, the ball hit the shoulder, maybe somewhere in the forearm a little bit. It did not affect anything.
- In your opinion, after two defeats, do the national team now have a chance to take first place, move up a division and compete for the World Cup through the Nations League?
- I think there are still chances. Georgians have won twice, we have two more games with them, we also play with Albanians and Czechs. There are chances, we just need to win.
