Viktor Leonenko: "Time goes by, but nothing has changed. "Dynamo plays the same way we did in the 90s of the last century"

Former Dynamo forward Viktor Leonenko expressed his opinion on the defeat of Oleksandr Shovkovskyi's team in the Europa League match against Lazio.

- Viktor Yevhenovych, how do you like Dynamo's start in the Europa League?

- Time passes, but nothing has changed. "Dynamo plays the same way we did in the 90s of the last century. The difference is that we had chances to score, while the players of the current convocation do not. We are talking about the same problem again. We were allowed to roll the ball where it was impossible to score. Brazhko made a good shot on goal, Yarmolenko stretched the goalkeeper, who saw everything and controlled the situation. That's all the moments. The fact that there were other shots does not matter. They did not pose a threat.

- Lazio scored quite easily. What was the reason for that?

- Because they are a great team. They are faster, handle the ball better, do everything mostly in one touch, and make lightning fast decisions. Not like ours, who need to make several touches to control the ball. And Dynamo has serious problems in defense. When we scored the first goal, three or four Lazio players almost reached the 11-meter mark. How can this be?

We scored all the goals from the central area. Either the safety net doesn't work, or they forget the opponent in the goalkeeper's box. It's a shame about Bushchan. They were literally shooting at his goal. He could do nothing there. When he could have saved the team, he pulled a difficult shot into the bottom corner.

- Before this match, Mykhavko played quite well, had a great press.

- This is how it is with us: before he has played, he is already listening to praise. The rest were no better. Brazhko was sitting low, or maybe he was being played as a defender... The coaches made a mistake with the defenders for this match. I like their selections - stretching exercises. It's not clear how they were going to take the ball away when we were attacked by a fast attack.

- Unlike the national team, Dynamo at least shoots on goal. They struck more shots than Lazio.

- We'll talk about the national team later. I heard that Hutsulyak and Bondarenko are invited there. I have nothing against them, but the tendency is that if you score a few goals, you will immediately receive an invitation from Rebrov.

Both the national team and Dynamo have a similar problem. My terms "useless ball control" and "we are allowed to play" fit the characteristics of both teams. We are already used to not having chances to score. With Lazio, we were also allowed to play. Of course, why not - the score is already 0-3. I feel like my veteran team played with the Italians.

- It should be noted that Lazio played with a semi-first team.

- I'm not talking about it at all. They also said goodbye to Immobile and started the Italian league badly. They have several matches every week with opponents of the Europa League or Champions League level. Of course, the players need to rest. At the same time, they need to find new leaders to fill the positions that became vacant after the sale of players. That is, Lazio is still searching, but it easily defeated Dynamo.

- What do you think of the sending off?

- The moment with Bragar initially looked like a play. But the assistant referee drew the attention of the head judge. The Dynamo player wanted to get the ball and stepped on his Achilles. After watching the replay, he got a red card. If he really intentionally stepped on it, then this is not only a risk of injury, but also disrespect for the opponent.

As for the Lazio player, it was a very stupid sending off. He just ran up and elbowed me in the nose. He also made excuses. From that moment on, the entire Italian bench was laughing. The team wins three goals, and its striker gets a red card in a simple and innocent situation. How do you explain to this person what football is? The referee understood the moment well.

- Viktor Yevhenovych, how can you explain Shaparenko's lack of readiness? He can't beat the first defender from a corner, passes to nowhere, unforced errors.

- Because he, like many others, appointed themselves stars. So far, I don't see him as a footballer. He runs on clean balls, tries to pass something sharp. In the championship, he succeeds somewhere, but in the national team and European competitions, when the opponent is serious and the level is higher, the discrepancy is visible. Opponents always need something more than our teams. Further in the Europa League will be even more difficult. With such a defense and a limited number of chances, it will be difficult to achieve anything.

- Dynamo players believe that we are also among the favorites in the Europa League.

- Because we show everything in pink colors. If you read it, we are always the favorites. A great team, a great Dynamo. But you should watch real football first! How many of our teams are left in the European Cups? We'll see what Shakhtar can do in the Champions League.

Abroad, teams take to the field and fight. That's why it's interesting to watch England. And ours, it seems, are forced to play, demanded to do something on the field.

One of the boxers said it's hard to get up for training at six in the morning when you have a lot of money. You get lazy. It's the same with our football players. Boxers, however, have a tougher time - you miss a punch and you're already on the floor. But our footballers will be yelled at a little bit and forget about it. They are used to it. We also have an excuse because we play all our matches away from home.

Gennadiy Chekhovsky