Ukrainian defender of Plymouth Maksym Taloverov shared his impressions of the match against Manchester City (1:3) in the 1/8 finals of the FA Cup, in which he scored the only goal for his team, and also talked about the post-match communication with the head coach of the Citizens, Josep Guardiola.
Maksym Taloverov. Photo — pafc.co.uk— Maksym, what impressions do you have after the match against Manchester City in the 1/8 FA Cup?
— From the fact that we managed to play against one of the best teams in the world, the emotions are, of course, great. These are the best football players in the world, one of the best coaches in the world… And on such a stadium too. Our fans came and created a great atmosphere, and there were quite a few of them — about ten thousand, and that’s just from Plymouth.
— Is the Man City stadium exactly what you expected?
— Playing at the Etihad is every footballer’s dream. A few months ago, I played at this stadium in FIFA. And yesterday I managed to play the whole game in real life! So, the impressions are great. Of course, the result is not what we aim for, because everyone believed in the dream, everyone wanted to win, to advance further. But playing against such a team is incredibly difficult. We fought until the end, showed character. We defended quite well, so a big thank you to the fans who supported us. I think every footballer gave their all.
It's a great experience, but now we have other goals, the focus is only on the Championship, because our task is still not completed. Later we will analyze the match against Man City, and now we need to focus on the next game.
— You scored your debut goal for Plymouth in the cup. How did the team congratulate you? Should you now celebrate?
— No, there’s no need to celebrate. The team congratulated me simply: they said it was a great goal, but we keep working. All the teammates congratulated me individually, mentioning that I played well in that episode. There wasn’t anything special, and there’s no need to celebrate.
— After the match, you spoke with Guardiola. What did Pep say to you?
— To put it briefly, he likes how Plymouth defends, how the defensive restructuring happens. Everything is disciplined and he respects that a lot. The body language of the defenders, how we support each other, how we interact with the midfielders and the goalkeeper, it’s all set up well. Guardiola also noted that he watched the game against Liverpool (1:0, in the previous stage of the FA Cup, — ed.) and praised our actions in it. He drew conclusions from these two games.
Of course, it’s nice when one of the greatest coaches of modern times approaches you, praises the defense, and says he likes it.
It was unexpected and pleasant. I couldn’t even imagine that Pep would come up and say a few nice words about our team.
Daniil Vereitin
