Midfielder of Kyiv’s Dynamo Vladislav Kabaev commented on the victory over Latvian RFS (1:0) in yesterday’s match of the final, 8th round of the main stage of the Europa League, as well as summarized his team’s performance in the tournament (4 points in 8 matches and a final 34th place out of 36).
Vladislav Kabaev. Photo — Yu. Yuriev- The first victory in the Europa League this season: burden off the shoulders?
- Of course, but very late... I would have liked it much earlier. I believe we had the prerequisites to perform better in other matches, but this is our, you could say, bitter experience. However, without it, there will be no progress. That is how I see it.
Of course, it is not very pleasant. There is a lot to work on. I say this in every interview. Because there are many young guys, many of our trainees, for whom such matches will be beneficial.
- The pitch at the stadium is simply terrible. It was even difficult for you to stand on your feet...
- The pitch has always been difficult here, and now it has become even worse. But we were in equal conditions with the opponent.
It’s easy to say that after the match, but… probably if the pitch were better, the football would be faster. And we would think less about how to receive the ball, and it would move faster. But it was bouncing. And while you look where the ball is, while you take two or three extra touches — all this hindered playing fast football. But we have what we have.
- Dynamo scored points only twice in January — these were the only scoring points for the team in the Europa League. Maybe now it’s better to play all matches in January?
- Honestly, I don’t want to drop out of the European cups now because the more matches, the better for us. We all love to play, even with such pretty long travels that are tough. But it’s better to have such matches, to play in Europe, for our people to come. We really appreciate that they come so far from Ukraine to support us.
We heard the fans at the stadium today, and they come to the hotel with their kids. We are very happy to see them and try to pay attention if possible.
- What do you think is the reason for Dynamo only managing to score points in January: logistics or...
- Well, no. We pay too much attention to logistics already. Of course, everyone understands that yes, it’s hard for us to travel. But simply attributing our losses to logistics is not right. Let’s look at ourselves a little and take responsibility. Logistics is logistics, but our legs, arms, and heads could have played better.
- How would you summarize the European season for Dynamo, including the Champions League qualifying matches?
- Well, you can look at it in different ways! It was very bright. For example, the Champions League: many did not believe in us at all, but we disproved that with results. It might be loud to say, but we are alive. That we can bring emotions to people.
And then in the Europa League… We talked with the guys and the coach. Something broke for us that prevented us from getting results. It hits our pride. Dynamo should not play like this. We expected a much better result than what we have in the end. I’m saying: we have what we have.
Therefore, such a bitter experience will only give us progress in the championship. Now we will concentrate all our efforts on the UPL because we need to win both the Cup and the championship: those are the team’s tasks. And matches like against RFS, we understand all this, will only benefit us.
