Former goalkeeper of Donetsk «Shakhtar» Yuriy Virt shared his thoughts on the match of the 1st round of the main stage of the Conference League between Kyiv «Dynamo» and English «Crystal Palace» (0:2).
Yuriy Virt— Right now, one could argue for a long time about whether «Dynamo» would have conceded if not for Taras Mikhavko’s injury, which «Crystal Palace» took advantage of to open the scoring while being a player up. I will not engage in this. The Kyiv coach Oleksandr Shovkovskyi studied the game of the Londonders well and I believe he made the right choice with three central defenders. Until the 30th minute, while Mikhavko was on the field, the guests virtually created no real threats to the nominal hosts' goal. Although, in my opinion, the Dynamo players, by focusing all their efforts on defense, would have conceded sooner or later anyway.
— Why?
— The Kyiv team initially defended quite organized, but there was no indication in their actions of a desire to counter-attack. And under constant pressure from a qualified opponent, it is very difficult to avoid mistakes. Moreover, the defense of the Kyiv team cannot be called impenetrable by any means.
In my opinion, in this situation, the fault lies with the Dynamo midfielders, who acted with an eye on defense, clearly lacking aggressiveness. Guerrero, positioned at the forefront of the attack, should have been more active. Who, if not him, was supposed to try to latch onto the ball? This didn’t happen, the British had obvious gameplay superiority, and it all ended for the Kyiv team with a deserved defeat — 0:2.
— By the way, who did coach Oleksandr Shovkovskyi mean when he said after the match that the player planned to replace Mikhavko with was not at all ready to come onto the field, and the Kyiv team had to play for a few minutes with a man down…
— I believe he was talking about Burtniak, as there were no other stoppers on the bench. But it’s better to ask Shovkovskyi about it.
— Could he have been hinting that the player meant to come on was not psychologically ready?
— I don’t know. The already mentioned Burtniak previously played under my management at Ternopil «Niva» and was distinguished by his fighting character and resoluteness in aerial duels.
— The Kyiv team fell short of the Londonders in all aspects and looked doomed. What are your thoughts on their chances of advancing to the next round after this defeat?
— Believe me, nothing terrible has happened. «Crystal Palace» was considered the favorite and made a strong impression. The Dynamo team needs to productively work on their mistakes and, as they say, not to lose «their» points in upcoming matches.
Andriy Pisarenko
