Famous coach Sergei Kovaltsev shared his expectations for the central match of the 11th round of the Ukrainian championship, where today in Kyiv, ‘Dynamo’ will play against ‘Shakhtar’.
Sergei Kovaltsev— All fans are eagerly awaiting the game between ‘Dynamo’ and ‘Shakhtar’. Firstly, as of today, the Donetsk team is the champion, and ‘Dynamo’ leads the table, outpacing the ‘miners’ by 6 points. Although this match will not be decisive, if the Kyiv team wins, it will be quite probable to say that they will secure the championship title.
Secondly, both derby participants are our only clubs playing in European competitions, and in six matches combined they have scored zero goals. This fact is quite interesting since arguably this has never happened in our history before.
Of course, one can talk about the terrible war and the teams often facing logistic issues. But we need to look for reasons primarily within ourselves. And when discussing the level of our Premier League to explain the poor performances on the European stage, we are just seeking an alibi. In his time, Valery Lobanovsky never mentioned this — neither to the players nor to the press. Although he understood that in the Ukrainian championship, when ‘Dynamo’ reached the semifinals of the Champions League, that team was a hegemon. The head coach of the Dynamo team then realized that if he focused any attention on this, it would, to a certain extent, give his players an alibi. On the contrary — Lobanovsky prepared the team at a sufficiently high level.
Thirdly, speaking of the Ukrainian classic, there is significant excitement. As far as I know, there are already no tickets for the match, and the number of television viewers will be among the highest.
— What do you say about the current capabilities of the Dynamo players?
— Alexander Shovkovskiy has brought ‘Dynamo’ to a good level in the championship. Compared to this same period last year, when the team led by Mircea Lucescu lost to ‘Shakhtar’ twice and had a significant gap from the Dynamo players, a lot has changed now. Everyone understands that if ‘Shakhtar’ loses this match, then ‘Dynamo’ will have a big chance to become champions.
— How do you see the character of this duel?
— I will say this: whoever will be more aggressive in winning the ball in midfield will have a better chance of winning this duel.
— You, as a former player of ‘Dynamo’, will presumably support Shovkovskiy’s team in the derby?
— Yes, of course. At least from the perspective that an Ukrainian coach works at ‘Dynamo’, with whom we played together. It seems to me that Alexander Shovkovskiy leads the team more than Marino Pusic does.
— Do you dare to predict the score?
— I think it will be a draw, 2:2.
Dmitry Verbinsky
