Head coach of «Dynamo U-19» Ihor Kostiuk commented on his team’s victory over Zhytomyr’s «Polissya U-19» (2:1) within the framework of the 13th round of the Ukrainian championship among youth teams.
— You saw that the opponent’s team was a bit fresher. In the first half, there wasn’t what we wanted to do, what we emphasized — it was battles in confrontations, second balls, there was also a lack of necessary concentration, we lost in some components and allowed the opponent to believe in their strength. Although we scored a goal, lack of concentration played its role — and we conceded from a penalty. Basically, the opponent had no more moments before that.
In the second half, we adjusted a bit, played more aggressively, began to win our confrontations, which led to the scored goal. There was a sending off, but we preserved our victory, closed the zones, and did not allow the opponent to create moments near our goal.
— Today there was a lot of struggle on the field, many yellow cards, one sending off in both teams, doctors often entered the field to assist the players. Do you think the game was too rough?
— You saw, two players had head injuries, the opponent traditionally wanted to take points from us, but today we won.
— How difficult is it to return after European Cup matches and switch to the Ukrainian championship? How did you prepare for this game?
— This was the main point where we concentrated our attention today. Not only U-19 teams, but also the main squads, which return after European Cups, feel a slight "dip." Therefore, we wanted to improve this today and prove that we can play emotionally even after European Cups. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out.
— Last season, «Polissya» once defeated «Dynamo», and in another instance, the teams played a draw. So, is this an uncomfortable opponent for us?
— Yes, you saw, they have good players who play very aggressively. We lacked freshness to play faster and better. This particularly applies to defenders who needed to take the ball to open spaces more quickly. And they inaccurately passed the ball, opened wrongly, which led them to get into the high press of the opponent’s team. We emphasized that this group needed to be cut off. But we have what we have. We secured the victory, we will analyze the game and prepare further.
— What does the team plan to do during the upcoming days of the break for national team matches?
— Many of our players, specifically eight footballers, are going to the national team, while others will be recovering because we went through a busy cycle. Those who played less will train, play a friendly match, while the rest will recover and prepare for the next game against «Chornomorets».