Georgia — Ukraine — 1:1. Post-match press conference. Sergey Rebrov: "The result weighed heavily, it affected the players"

On Saturday, November 16, the Ukrainian national team drew 1:1 with the Georgian national team in the 5th round of the Nations League 2024/25. Here is the post-match press conference of the head coach of the Ukrainian national team Sergey Rebrov.

- I told the team that I am grateful to them for their effort. It was difficult to create anything on such a heavy pitch. And with such a high level of mistakes, it is very difficult to achieve a result. Especially against an opponent like the Georgian national team when they are playing at home with such significant support.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t hold onto the winning result. We could have snatched the victory; we had the chance to score at the end of the match. But we have what we have and are preparing for an equally important match against Albania.

- What was the main factor of this match? And how did the first and second halves differ?

- I believe the main factor was that we scored a quick goal. The result was very important for us today. And the players tried to keep this result. Probably because of this, there were so many mistakes, probably because of this, we “sat” in a pretty low block. It’s very difficult. The guys understand which country they are playing for; they give their all, but I think today the result weighed heavily, it affected the players. We played against the Georgian national team on their field, which had very strong support from the stands. I believe our opponent played with a different motivation compared to our first match.

- In the second half, you communicated several times with Mudryk on the sideline. What did you tell him? And the second question: how well were you able to deal with Kvaratskhelia today?

- I spoke with Mudryk for the reason that he indeed did a lot of intensive work. I advised him on several moments. He is an important player for us, he creates a lot of speed and helped the team in attack. I asked him how ready he was because the pitch was very challenging.

As for the second question, I think everyone once again became convinced today that Kvaratskhelia is a player of a very high level. Individually, he is a very strong footballer. It was not only Konoplya who dealt with his tasks against this player, but also the players who supported him because it is very difficult to play one-on-one against Khvicha.

- There were Georgian and Ukrainian fans in the stadium today. They are friends. What could you say to them regarding this?

- I am grateful to the Georgian fans. They sang a very interesting song today (“P**in — h**lo” — ed. note). This is very important. I have a very sincere attitude towards the Georgian people; I have many friends here. I am thankful for the position of the citizens of Georgia, who genuinely support Ukraine, as demonstrated in today’s match. Indeed, when the war started, we felt very substantial support from Georgians.

Alexander POPOV