Former Dynamo striker Viktor Khlus shared his expectations for the match of the Kyiv team in the 8th round of the Europa League against RFS.
Viktor Khlus— I can say one thing: we are in different weight categories with RFS. Dynamo and the Latvian club are absolutely different — both in their history and in their achievements. Therefore, if RFS is ranked higher than Dynamo in the current Europa League table, our team should think of nothing else but victory. This goes without saying. After all, if we start looking back at championships where teams like the Latvian one compete, then we are worth very little money.
— At the moment in the main stage of the second-tier Euro tournament, Dynamo has earned only one point. What can you say about their performances in this draw?
— My opinion is this. Any team that sets ambitious goals must have quality performers. And what do we see: as soon as a certain skilled footballer starts playing in Dynamo and still hasn’t had a chance to conduct themselves this season, they are sold. I understand that if we are engaged in preparing players, then that is normal. But if we are talking about some ambitious goals, then sales should not even be on the table. On the contrary — it would be important to supplement the team even more so that new quality players can be added to those quality players already present. Only then would a capable team emerge that would be competitive on the European stage. But as it stands, it turns out we will have to work “for the man”.
— Recently, Dynamo sold their main goalkeeper Georgiy Buschan to Saudi Arabia. Who among the Dynamo goalkeepers, in your opinion, could replace him suitably?
— I consider Buschan to be a very quality goalkeeper, and he has shown himself in the best light for many years in Dynamo. Buschan is one of those goalkeepers thanks to whom there were no problems in this position at Dynamo. Moreover, the question about the goalkeeper’s slot in the Kyiv club was not even raised. But now we are opening Pandora's box and now this position could become problematic. Why? I’ll explain. Maybe the younger Neshcheret is a good player and may someday develop into a good goalkeeper. But for that, he needs time. To become a truly great goalkeeper, he has to let in a lot of goals. So I fear that Neshcheret might start to engage in that already now.
— How, in your opinion, will today’s Dynamo match against RFS unfold?
— There can only be one scenario here. The Dynamo players need to step onto the field and not be afraid of this team. They need to feel confident and create a lot of quality chances. After all, when they played the previous match against the Turkish Galatasaray, very few chances were created by our team. They created one chance and scored three — yes, that happens in football. And in order to perform well and reliably both in the national championship and on the European stage, you need to create, create, and create. So that there are plenty of opportunities to score more goals.
Andriy Pysarenko
