The head coach of Kyiv’s Dynamo, Oleksandr Shovkovskyi, spoke with journalists ahead of the match of the 7th round of the main stage of the Europa League against the Turkish Galatasaray.
Oleksandr Shovkovskyi— Are all players, except Volodymyr Brazhko, ready for tomorrow’s game?
— First of all, I want to thank Turkey for the warm welcome, for the kind words of support regarding the situation happening in our country. Unfortunately, the war has been ongoing for 11 years now, three of which have been large-scale. You asked how to manage, how to motivate the team. It’s very difficult and not easy to get ready for matches under the sounds of air alarms and explosions. But we must understand: in order for football in Ukraine to continue, we need to keep playing. And the guys understand this. If we stop, then football will stop, and this applies to many other areas, not just sports. We must do our job, work, and help our warriors defend our borders and do everything in our power to show the whole world: no matter what happens, breaking Ukraine is impossible.
As for your direct question, besides Brazhko, Denis Popov will also definitely not be able to help tomorrow. All other players are ready to take the field.
— How did your training camp in Antalya go?
— Of course, for us, this is also a new experience. We returned from vacation earlier. Given the climatic conditions in Ukraine, we cannot hold the championship in December or January. We only start at the end of February. However, we have to adapt to new realities in these conditions and prepare. I believe we have done sufficient productive work, and the players are as ready as they can be after almost 2.5 weeks of preparation.
— Mircea Lucescu, a respected person in Turkey. He visited your friendly matches in January. Did you talk to him about the match against Galatasaray, his former team? And if not, what other football topics did you discuss?
— Mircea Lucescu is a very respected person not only in Turkey but also in Ukraine. We constantly maintain our relationship and communicate with him. He came to watch our matches and training, and we talked about many different topics, including football.
— What chances do you see for Galatasaray?
— Let's be honest: we will be playing against one of the giants of Turkish football, a team that has performed successfully in recent years and has made acquisitions totaling over 150 million. They have experienced players representing various championships, which certainly adds weight. They are in sixth place in the Europa League and have a decent chance of progressing further. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Galatasaray is one of the best in terms of the number of goals scored. I repeat, we perfectly understand who we will be playing against.
We are talking about our opponent, but we, looking at them, have also prepared for this game ourselves. And we will try to do everything we can to demonstrate quality, mood, and to show a decent game. The outcome consists of many aspects: mistakes, executed moments, etc.
