Former striker of Poltava’s “Vorskla” Sergey Chuychenko shared his thoughts on the defeat of Zhytomyr’s “Polesie” against Andorran “Santa Coloma” (1:2) in the first match of the 2nd qualifying round of the Conference League.
Sergey Chuychenko“A very serious slap in the face, a bitter lesson for the future. None of our teams have the right to lose to teams from significantly more modest football countries. And “Polesie”, which has positioned itself as one of the strongest clubs in Ukraine for several years now, should not!
It’s hard to understand what happened to the Zhytomyr team after they scored. It seemed that leading 1:0, they needed to score again. But “Polesie” was as if replaced. Many mistakes, irresponsible actions from a number of players — and we already saw 1:2. The remainder of the game showed that the Andorrans did not want to yield to their opponent, and in the end, they brought the game to victory.
Was this underestimating the opponent? Carelessness? I can’t say, as I still can’t believe it: how could one lose to a team from Andorra? I believe that after this disgraceful fiasco, Ruslan Rotan must find the levers that will make his players take their professional and playing responsibilities seriously, and this must not happen again. In the return match, “Polesie” simply must win. And not just win, but advance to the next round of the competition. Otherwise, it will be hard to understand this failure in Ukrainian football,” said Chuychenko.
