Next Thursday, November 7, Kyiv "Dynamo" will play in Hamburg against the Hungarian "Ferencváros" as part of the 3rd round of the main stage of the Europa League. The day before, a regulated pre-match press conference with the head coach of the Ukrainian team, Alexander Shovkovskiy, took place in the conference hall of the "Volksparkstadion", which will host this match.
— After three matches, your team has zero points, zero goals scored. At the same time, "Ferencváros" is the first opponent who does not participate in the TOP-5 European leagues. Do you feel under pressure because of this, that you must win?
— I will not ask you what kind of pressure you are talking about and what you understand by this. Because every coach prepares the team for the game and strives to win. Some things work out; some do not, that’s football. The team facing us also has its own objectives.
Of course, excitement is always present. But we focus on analyzing opponents and preparing for matches, examining both the team actions of our opponent and the players of that team.
— What is your opinion on "Ferencváros"?
— Over the last six years, this team consistently occupies high positions and plays at a high level. Last season, "Ferencváros" also achieved certain results, showing a large difference between goals scored and conceded.
Alexander Shovkovskiy. Photo — A. PopovThe coach who brought "Ferencváros" its last victory in the Hungarian championship decided to leave for the country that is currently at war with us. The new coach of "Ferencváros" is from the Netherlands, and under him, the team demonstrates quite a good game, striving to control the ball. Until the last match against "Debrecen" (2:2), "Ferencváros" had conceded the fewest goals in the current Hungarian championship. This team strives to show its game against any opponent, demonstrate its style. We convey this to our footballers. Therefore, I think it will be a very interesting uncompromising game.
— Your team has many young footballers. What level of experience is needed for these guys to become competitive?
— "Ferencváros" had the opportunity to strengthen before this season and acquired 6-7 players, spending almost 10 million euros. Unfortunately, the situation in our country does not allow us to make similar reinforcements. We can only play with our own pupils or Ukrainians. This imposes a certain burden on our actions. Here we are now talking at a press conference, while in Kyiv there is again an air raid alert...
For young footballers, this is a huge experience, an opportunity to feel the highest level of international tournaments. If we want to develop, we must constantly change and play against teams that are higher class than us.
For us, for Ukraine, for Ukrainian football, it is important to show that despite what is happening in our country, we will fight to the last to achieve our goals. In football and beyond.
— How difficult is it to play constantly abroad? Do you feel at least a little at home in Hamburg?
— Rhetorical question. Of course, the situation would be completely different if we were playing in Kyiv with the support of our fans. But we are grateful to this city for accepting us and doing everything so that we feel at home. This is important to us. We are grateful to all of Germany for the support that we constantly feel. But no matter how we say we play like at home, it’s not quite so...
— In the first three rounds, you had very strong opponents. Do you feel that now is your first real opportunity to earn points?
— We tune ourselves to each team, study each player and always go onto the field to play and win. This does not always work out. Your task as journalists is to make predictions, assess chances, try to find the advantages of the teams, while our task is to prepare for each game, study the opponent, and strive to show our best game in order to win.
In addition to Shovkovskiy, midfielder of "Dynamo" Volodymyr Brazhko also participated in the pre-match press conference. Report on his communication with the media >>>
Alexander POPOV from Hamburg
