Midfielder of the Kyiv «Dynamo», Vladyslav Kabaiev, summed up yesterday’s match against Bosnian «Zrinski» (6:0) in the 3rd round of the main stage of the Conference League.
— In recent games, players and the coach have noted issues with concentration in the first and last minutes. Was there a discussion in the locker room before the game?
— This isn’t the first game we’ve had this conversation; we discuss it in the circle too. But, as you saw, they had a chance right in the first minutes, so we need to work on that. But it’s good that all’s well that ends well.
— In the first half, Oleksandr Shovkovskyi gave a lot of instructions, addressing Vitalii Buyalskyi and all the field players. What exactly did the coach emphasize?
— Honestly, I didn’t hear what was being said because you’re in the game, but there was a lot of nervousness, which is, of course, normal because we haven’t won in European competitions for a long time, and our affairs in the championship are not to say bad, but we lost the last game and wanted to show a reaction, like today’s.
In the first half, we understood that we’re playing against people, not some kind of robots, and we would have our moments, and our zones. We analyzed them well, and the coach was just advising that in some situations we need to play more calmly, not always rush forward, control the game — and that’s how it turned out in the second half.
— In your opinion, what helped you score so many goals? Did the opponent collapse, or is it the class of your players?
— I think it’s both. When we scored the second, third goals, a lot of spaces appeared, they began to play more forward. I know from personal experience, though it’s not normal: when you score the third, fourth, it psychologically affects you. And whatever you do, all the rebounds were ours, we had confidence in our strengths.
We wanted to score the seventh and eighth, but we understood that we have the next game against a very good opponent — LNZ. I think six is quite an immodest figure. So things we didn’t score before, today everything went in.
— In the first half, most of the attacks went through the left flank. What did you find there in the opponent?
— Yes, you noticed correctly, more attacks were on the left. There was no specific emphasis, the head coach didn’t tell us to attack in that way. It just happened. I played more on the right. I’ll say for myself, they defended very compactly, on the left it was a bit different for them.
Such things happen. I was asked similar questions after the game with «Kryvbas»: «Attack from the right flank, the left scores.» Today it happened like this: the left attacks, the right scores. And vice versa. Today was such a game, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
— You had much more possession than the opponent. Was it the coach’s plan not to let the opponents progress, to take the ball away?
— Yes, we have such a tactic in the last matches, that when you give the opponent confidence, then it’s harder. This team transitions very well from defense to attack, we watched that. If you let them run somewhere, they use these moments well.
So we had such a tactic for this game — in the first seconds, press a lot, take the ball, and when the team starts to spread wide, then we can use the first and second pass to immediately bring one-on-one. So this plan worked in the second half.
In the first, much didn’t work out because there were many mistakes, but I liked in the locker room that there was no panic, that it was 1:0, the game was not very qualitative. In the second half, we came out and, let’s say, outplayed the opponent.
— Did Popov’s goal add confidence?
— Yes, of course, when the team wins, then... You know, we have this thing: when we score, we calm down. But it wasn’t like that now, I believe. Yes, the quality of the game in the first half left much to be desired, there were many mistakes upfront, but it’s encouraging that in the second half we added again.
— You said you analyzed before the game that the opponent transitions well from defense to attack, but today created most of the moments when you caught them in transitional phases from their attack to defense. Did you analyze also — the opponent is good in attack, but not as active when transitioning back, or did you realize this during the game?
— I won’t say we analyzed it that deeply, we focused more on how they run out well. But, of course, look at the first half. It was compact, and it was very difficult to get the ball between the lines, the field was not very good, to be honest.
And in the second half there were many zones — I don’t know why that happened. And you know, we used these zones. If we hadn’t scored one or two moments, as sometimes happens with us, it would have been difficult. But when you score the first, second, then the team opens up, you have confidence.
— When you scored the fifth and sixth goals, it turned out that with this win, you even overcame the goal difference from the first two matches. When you realized everything was going in today, did you think about needing to improve the goal difference for the future if the game is going your way?
— Good question. No, honestly, we didn’t think about that. I caught myself thinking: it would be better if we won every match 1:0, rather than 6:0 today — and it would bring us three points in the piggy bank.
No, honestly, I think the team didn’t think about it. We are just satisfied that today what we worked on all week, in these couple of days, a lot of it worked. It’s positive.
Yevheniya Yakubovska