The head coach of "Rukh," Vitaliy Ponomaryov, commented on his team's victory in the Lviv derby against "Karpaty" (1:0), which took place yesterday as part of the Round of 16 of the Ukrainian Cup.
"Any victory is pleasant. Right now, 'Rukh' was not in the best condition, as not everything was going as we wanted. So I am grateful to the entire team that we managed to achieve this important victory. The team showed character. In all game aspects, 'Rukh' was better than 'Karpaty'.
The previous unsuccessful matches are my fault, not the players. Not everyone understands how the team is developing. YouTubers and journalists talk about how 'Rukh' should play. But many forget that the average age of our players is 21.5 years. I have not seen such young teams in Ukraine compared to other opponents. There is extra pressure on our footballers, and I want to thank the guys for handling this pressure.
This is not my most important victory as a coach, as I have already noted, every match is important to me. 'Karpaty' is just as much of an opponent for us as any other team. But the victory in the cup is significant because it all depends on one match, whereas in the championship, there is an opportunity to correct the situation in the next games. Regarding the Ukrainian Cup, 'Rukh' does not have specific tasks for this tournament, as we play from game to game and in each match we must fight for victory," quotes Ponomaryov the official website of "Rukh".