«Dynamo U-19» forward Matviy Ponomarenko shared his impressions of the away victory over «Kolos U-19» (1:0) in the 13th round of the youth championship, in which he scored the winning goal.
Matviy Ponomarenko (left)— It was a very difficult game because the weather conditions were challenging — fog and rain. But I believe that today was a great game on our part.
We defeated «Kolos» — a team we hadn’t been able to beat for two consecutive seasons. So today, we had a strong motivation to win against them. The team played as one and achieved a positive result.
— Is the victory over «Kolos» special for you?
— Every victory is special. But if you think about it, we were on the bus with the guys talking about this game. A week before the game, we were saying it would be a crucial match because it was time to win and we needed to give our all to succeed.
— You scored the winning goal. Can you recall that episode?
— We intercepted the ball in the center of the field. I was running from an offside position, and Redushko saw that there was almost no one near me and passed the ball into a free zone. I caught up with the ball — there was one defender in front of me, and I needed to beat him and shoot.
That’s exactly what happened — I beat the defender and understood that I needed to shoot under the goalkeeper’s supporting leg, so I aimed for the lower left corner. Everything turned out perfectly.
— You have increased your record number of goals in the U-19 National League. Do you still think about this record?
— To be honest, I try not to think about it and just go into each game with the mindset to score goals. Regardless of the team I’m in, I have one goal — to go out, score, and help the team.
I try not to think about this record because during the game you don’t need it. You go into each match motivated and knowing what needs to be done.
— Today, «Dynamo» took many shots on goal but managed to score only one goal. What was missing to score more against «Kolos»?
— I don’t know, maybe just some bad luck because we hit the post and the crossbar. There were certain moments when we could have scored. Perhaps it was due to the condition of the pitch because there was a lot of gravel, and we are used to training on natural turf.
We could have scored much more, but it turned out that we scored one goal, and that’s good. It doesn’t matter how many we scored — the main thing is that we got three points.
— In a few days, «Dynamo» will play against «Hibernian» in the UEFA Youth League. What are your expectations for this opponent?
— We understand that it will be a tough match because in the Youth League, there are no easy games. The coaching staff told us about this game, that after the match with «Kolos,» we should already start preparing for the next one, as it will be a difficult game.
«Hibernian» is a good team, and it won’t be easy. We need to start preparing for the game from this day onward.
