Oleksandr Karavayev, the versatile player of Kyiv Dynamo, summarized the match against Donetsk Shakhtar in the 11th round of the Ukrainian Championship on the air of 'Profootball Digital'.
Oleksandr Karavayev— A question for you as an experienced participant of the Classic, has it been a long time since there was such an aggressive match?
— Yes, I absolutely agree. It seems to me, this tension started from the second half of the Cup. We understood the need for constant pressing and, most importantly, competition from the first minutes. No one wanted to yield, hence the intensity.
— Did this «charge» specifically come from the second half of the Cup when you made the comeback?
— More or less. Then we conceded immediately at the start of the second half and realized we had to throw all our energy into scoring. That’s how we achieved the comeback. And here we wanted to do that from the first minutes. And we did, but unfortunately, conceded an unnecessary goal on a set piece.
— Colleagues just asked Denys Popov, and he said «A parody of the classic». Then he explained how to understand it. But these moments: one scores and shouts something, another shows his jersey… Is this all — a reaction to that tension?
— That’s theirs, let them do what they want. I am not a supporter of that, I don’t support it. If they think it’s good, let them. I don’t understand it, and I don’t do it myself.
— Okay, so what was your team’s charge?
— Of course, we wanted to impose our fight, score a quick goal, not give them the advantage. Although the goal in the early minutes slightly ruined our plan. But we tried to do everything we agreed on.
— In the second half, Dynamo added again, as it happened in the Cup. Is it some kind of magic, or how does this happen?
— No, you know, it works like that on the football field. When you are losing, of course, the other team immediately activates. It’s just such an impulse on the field. If you don’t respond to it, then you don’t belong in big football.
— Why didn’t it end 2:2?
— Realization, most likely, let us down. We understood we could add. But that second goal was very lavish, it’s almost impossible to cope with it, of course, it’s also discouraging. We scored a goal immediately and rushed for more, but we lacked a bit of realization.
— If they told you at the beginning of the week: «You’ll win one match, lose one» (The Cup is the Cup, but there are still 20 more rounds in the championship)?
— I can’t answer that because we prepare for every game only with victory in mind. We want to win all games in the Cup and championship. There’s no other option for us. We can’t choose.
