Poltava Vorskla defender Ilya Krupskiy shared his thoughts on the significance of the draw (1:1) with Kyiv Dynamo in the 19th round of the Ukrainian championship.
Ilya Krupskiy— Is the game against Dynamo the best this season for Vorskla?
— We came to get a result, not to show off against the leader and go home with a Kyiv cake in hand. We proved to ourselves, first and foremost, that we can play against any opponent. We imposed our football on Dynamo. We had moments, caught our wave. I can highlight how Myakushko, Iede, and Ndukwe strengthened us from the bench. Yes, we didn’t win, but we need to demonstrate such a game in every match so that more people come to the stadium. We saw that Poltava knows how to play football. This is the main message.
— It’s no secret that Dynamo has issues with the gameplay in the air during defense. Was this a focus during preparation?
— We decided on this during the game, realizing that short passes weren’t working—okay, we’ll load it up. Dynamo prepared for us in the same way.
— Was there an underestimation of you from Dynamo? It seems they didn’t know you could deliver crosses. On equal footing, there could have been two scoring opportunities.
— I can agree with you. We tried to move away from our game, and then adapted to Dynamo.
— What was the reaction when you saw that statistically you outperformed your opponent?
— We talked among ourselves on the bus that we shouldn’t award ourselves medals for this draw. We haven’t done anything yet to secure ourselves from the relegation zone.
Taras Pravdeniy
