Viktor Leonenko on Kryskiv’s red card: «When I see these stupid fouls, I want to ask the guys: what are you doing in football?»

Former forward of Kyiv's «Dynamo» Viktor Leonenko shared his impressions of the match of the 11th round of the Ukrainian championship «Dynamo» — «Shakhtar».

Viktor Leonenko

— What are your impressions of the game?

— I said before the game that there might not be many moments. And that’s what happened. Honestly, I feel sorry for the «Dynamo» fans who come to the football and see two moments: Voloshin’s shot and Karavaev’s goal. And the scariest thing is that the «Dynamo» players have to give Kryskiv a gift for this card.

— About that moment, was the red card deserved?

— When I see these stupid fouls, I want to ask the guys: what are you doing in football? Hitting from behind on the Achilles doesn’t take much brains. Although the referee could have shown a yellow card. He only showed one yellow to the «Dynamo» players (to Andriyevskyi — ed.), although they often stepped on the feet, which should have been yellow cards, as far as I remember. And he gave the «miners» three yellows, but that was unnecessary, one red to Kryskiv was enough.

— What motivation could Kryskiv have to go for such a tackle?

— This shows class. When you make such stupid tackles, you show you don’t have it. Does he have brains? He’s not quick enough, why roll like that.

— Returning to the first question, why do you feel sorry for the «Dynamo» fans?

— Because you can’t play at home and create one and a half moments. Karavaev could easily have missed, the angle is sharp, and he could have hit the goalie. I don’t understand how this is possible. The fans came and saw four moments in ninety-four minutes. In the first half, only a crossbar, and for «Dynamo», nothing at all. Leaders don’t play like that.

Though Shakhtar looked more interesting before the red card. They created something. I think they would have won if it weren’t for the card. The «miners» indeed looked better, so there’s still a question of who played at home.

Look at the Ukraine national team, they have one and a half moments as well. I don’t understand when players can’t create moments. Why do they even go out on the field and what are they doing there?

— What do you think is the problem?

— It’s the class of the players. Look where they are kicking. Somewhere to Dnipro, like Voloshin. They need to be given leather balls that we had back in the day, I’d love to see how they’d kick. So, of course, if you don’t create moments, you just don’t have class. And no one will say anything about it. They played a draw and everyone is happy. Why be happy? People came, watched one and a half moments, and that’s it. Why then go to football?

In general, I have a question for the «Dynamo» fans. How can you support him when the team only creates one and a half moments? You watch, it seems like they are running, trying, dying, hitting each other, but they create nothing. And then we are told that there was tension.

— Let’s analyze the goals in this match.

— «Shakhtar» scored a stupid goal. They just pushed the ball into the net. And in the moment of Karavaev’s goal, the Brazilian didn’t do his job. But before that, «Dynamo» had nothing except Voloshin’s shot. «Shakhtar» had another shot from Konoplia.

— Can you single out any players from both teams?

— Kryskiv, of course. He let the guys down, which later made them throw up in ten. But at least they will sleep well. I can’t highlight anyone positively.

— Karavaev — the joker for «Dynamo»?

— I won’t say he’s a joker, because when five substitutions are made, you’re bound to get it right. It used to be when two or three substitutions were made, then you could call it that.

— What do you think of the performance of the Kyiv strikers?

— Were they on the field? I didn’t see them hitting the goal. Vanat didn’t have a single shot. But they write about «Inter». The strikers of «Dynamo» were just running, and that’s all. But a forward has to create moments himself.

— Why do you think there are so many injuries? In this match, Popov got injured.

— Popov is constantly injured. Maybe he’s unlucky, but he really has a lot of injuries. A defender has, as they said before, to tackle the forwards, but here he gets injured more than they do. But he wears ripped sleeves.

In «Dynamo», almost all defenders are injured. What are the reasons? Maybe there’s a wrong training process, maybe they can’t handle the loads. Or maybe it’s just bad luck. Because you can get injured in any situation. Look, Shevchenko got out of bed and got injured.

If we talk about the past, defenders used to be iron. Bessonov doesn’t understand how a defender can get injured (laughs — ed.). So Popov needs to watch more old matches.

Mykola Dendak