On Sunday, November 9, in the home match of the 12th round of the Ukrainian championship, Kyiv «Dynamo» lost 0:1 to Cherkasy LNZ. The match took place in Kyiv at the «Dynamo» stadium named after Valeriy Lobanovskyi. Your attention is invited to the post-match press conference of the head coach of the guest team, Vitaliy Ponomaryov.
— A tough match. Any match against Kyiv «Dynamo» cannot be simple, so we expected this. I am grateful to the guys for the game, for following the game plan. Positive emotions.
— Today you played with three central defenders. How effective was this against «Dynamo»?
— This wasn’t the first time we’ve played with such a scheme. We played the same against «Shakhtar.» In general, we use different formations. Today, for example, we switched to a 5−3−2 formation aimed at attack, which is also familiar to us. I believe we played well overall today: there were no 100% scoring opportunities at our goal, it was limited to just approaches to our goal.
— How do you rate the refereeing in today’s match?
— As far as I understand, looking at this championship, referees have been instructed to let the game flow — with the goal to raise the level of game intensity to that of good European championships.
Of course, referees may make mistakes in some episodes, but today they managed the game quite well, and there can be no complaints about them. Yes, there was a penalty moment at our goal, but there is VAR, and according to the referees' opinion, there was no infringement there.
— The players of your team blatantly simulated today, stayed down on the field, stalled for time. Was this their personal initiative or part of the game plan?
— We never had such a game plan. But there are certain players to whom such behavior is inherent. For example, Prosper. We constantly point this out to him, explaining that he can’t stay down after every challenge. Yes, there are small tricks, but the team must look respectable. When the score was 1:0, we slowed the pace with substitutions, plus some players really had injuries.
Post-match press conference of «Dynamo» head coach Alexander Shovkovskyi.
Oleksandr POPOV from the «Dynamo» stadium named after Valeriy Lobanovskyi