The head coach of “Dynamo U-19” Igor Kostiuk commented on the youth championship match against Donetsk “Shakhtar”, in which the “white-blues” suffered a narrow defeat – 0:1.
Igor Kostiuk (photo: fcdynamo.com)— It was a game of tactics, a game of nerves. “Shakhtar” chose a tactic to play defensively, defended well, surrendered possession. We created moments, had the advantage, they practically had no chances. But a long shot, then play on the rebound – and a goal that decided the outcome of the match. But that’s football, you have to convert your chances and play more constructively upfront in individual terms.
— It seemed that the goal was scored from an offside…
— Yes, in my opinion, it was a clear mistake by the assistant referee because the player who played for the rebound was closer to the goal than our last defender by about a meter and a half. I believe that for matches of this level, this is unacceptable. Earlier in our matches, VAR was used so the referees could train – and if VAR had been in use today, the goal would have been disallowed. But in the end, we have a negative result for us.
— Both teams played European cup matches mid-week. Did this affect the flow of today’s game?
— You saw that “Shakhtar” often slowed down the pace, players were lying on the field a lot. But this in no way gave us the opportunity to relax. We increased the tempo, they slowed it down, but at the end they could have scored again. I believe we managed to fully recover after the match in the UEFA Youth League, we were completely ready for today’s match, but we conceded an unfortunate goal after a rebound. Ponomarenko had a wonderful moment at the beginning of the game to score; if he had succeeded, it would have been a completely different picture of the game and it would have developed differently.
— Dynamo has the best attack in the current championship. What didn’t work to score today?
— The opponent adapted well, played with five defenders, covered the zones, but despite this, we created chances, moved the ball to the penalty area. Matviy Ponomarenko is not at his best form, Vitaliy Lobko lacks match practice, and Vladislav Gerych, our top scorer at the moment, unfortunately, is out due to injury. So far, the forwards are not fulfilling the main task set before them, which is – not scoring goals.
— There are still two-thirds of the championship ahead. The defeat to Shakhtar is not a reason to throw in the towel?
— By no means. We have a long championship, there’s still a match in the second round. We will try to win our matches and hope that “Shakhtar” cannot perform without losses in their matches. That’s football, the tournament distance is long. And this defeat is an additional reason to properly prepare for the away match in the second round.
