Renowned Ukrainian coach, former midfielder of Kyiv "Dynamo" Volodymyr Sharan commented on the second leg match of the Champions League qualifiers "Paphos" - "Dynamo".
Volodymyr Sharan— Volodymyr Bohdanovych, what do you think is the reason why "Dynamo" should win against "Paphos"?
— Right now, let’s say, everyone has learned to play football. "Paphos" is a mid-tier team that plays very organized defense. This is what they showed in the first match. "Dynamo" is a young team. But "Dynamo" is a team that has become the champion of Ukraine! And, without a doubt, Dynamo players must get past "Paphos", despite the fact that we lost the first match 0:1. If we really set such goals for ourselves. We are the champions of Ukraine. We have already gained some experience, but we have gained it. That’s for sure!
— So there are good chances for Kyivans to overcome such an opponent?
— "Paphos" is indeed an opponent that we certainly should overcome. Not beating the Cypriot team would be considered a tragedy for Ukrainian football from one side. Because we did not encounter renowned teams in this round to understand that we will not overcome them. So we need to go out and play. In the first match, we generally played quite well. But we need to draw the right conclusions. Because "Paphos" defends very organized and makes good counterattacks. And in the first match, they punished us on the counterattack.
— Before the match with "Paphos", Kyivans defeated "Rukh" away with a score of 5:1! Can "white-blues" take something from this match?
— "Dynamo" needs to play more aggressively in attack. Victory over "Rukh"? "Rukh" allowed us to play our kind of football. Because the Lviv team was losing and wanted to catch up. And "Dynamo" scored five goals because of this. There was space and many moments one-on-one. If in the match against the Cypriots, we score first, maybe "Paphos" will open up.
Dmytro Kotkov
