The head coach of Zhytomyr’s Polissya, Ruslan Rotan, summed up the results of his team’s match against Epitsentr (0:0) in the 13th round of the Ukrainian championship yesterday.
Ruslan Rotan. Photo — FC Polissya«We wanted more, 100 percent, and we understand that we did not achieve the result we were striving for, but we still need to thank the guys for their work. They wanted to, they really wanted to.
Today, we faced a defensive team that wanted to play defensively and run into counterattacks. We have to give them credit — their plan worked. In the second half, there were two counterattacks by Epitsentr and two dangerous moments at our goal. The opponent bided their time for these counterattacks and, possibly, such moments unsettle us a bit because we always want to dominate possession.
As for the start of the game, it was very easy for us, we were creating moment after moment. There were many preconditions for shots today, but what we had, we didn’t capitalize on, and we somewhat carelessly treated our opportunities: we thought they would come on their own. But we saw something entirely different.
In the second half, there were very few correct decisions on our part, and with each passing minute, the opponent gained more confidence, breaking into counterattacks, two of which were very dangerous.
No big deal. I told the guys that such matches will happen in the future. You won’t always win 2:0 or 3:0. It’s somewhat reassuring. Sometimes you get matches like today’s. But if we had scored quickly today, perhaps this result would have been secure for us and then, I think we could have developed it even better.
But this is how the match turned out. We need to calmly accept this result, analyze it, and most importantly, we should already be prepared through this match. It’s like a pattern for us that the next matches will be similar. Sometimes, in such matches, you really need to want to win, play with your heart. Sometimes you score even in the 90th minutes, so you need to believe in it,» said Rotan during the broadcast on Polissya’s club YouTube channel.
