U21. Post-match comments
Saturday, May 12, 2018
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The Shakhtar U21 head coach Valeriy Kryventsov and the defender Valeriy Bondar reflect on the meeting with Oleksandriia
Valeriy Kryventsov, head coach:
- First of all, I want to congratulate Oleksandriia on the victory. This team showed a good organization throughout the game, and given that they had some first-team players in the team, it was not easy for us. That’s no secret that it’s really hard for the eighteen- and nineteen-year-old guys to play against the seniors with the Premier League expertise. Although I felt that Karpaty would not yield to Dynamo, talking about that with the players all week long: we prepared them both mentally and physically for the fact that the match could be the title decider. And so it turned out: the Lviv team proved stronger, with everything depending on us. If we consider the scoring chances, we must have converted about eight chances, to win and to close all the questions in the first half. But, probably, lady luck was not on our side. It's really frustrating that Kolya Matviienko, who looked great in the first half, had his nose broken in one of individual challenges. In the previous game, we lost Topalov, and today, most likely, we’ve lost Oleksii Kaschuk either. With the squad we have, they are extremely important figures in offensive terms: one feeds the ball, the other scores, and vice versa. Next Friday, there will be a core encounter of the season against Dynamo, with us approaching it not in a very good staffing condition. It’s necessary for us to understand what to do with that and how to solve this situation.
- First of all, I want to congratulate Oleksandriia on the victory. This team showed a good organization throughout the game, and given that they had some first-team players in the team, it was not easy for us. That’s no secret that it’s really hard for the eighteen- and nineteen-year-old guys to play against the seniors with the Premier League expertise. Although I felt that Karpaty would not yield to Dynamo, talking about that with the players all week long: we prepared them both mentally and physically for the fact that the match could be the title decider. And so it turned out: the Lviv team proved stronger, with everything depending on us. If we consider the scoring chances, we must have converted about eight chances, to win and to close all the questions in the first half. But, probably, lady luck was not on our side. It's really frustrating that Kolya Matviienko, who looked great in the first half, had his nose broken in one of individual challenges. In the previous game, we lost Topalov, and today, most likely, we’ve lost Oleksii Kaschuk either. With the squad we have, they are extremely important figures in offensive terms: one feeds the ball, the other scores, and vice versa. Next Friday, there will be a core encounter of the season against Dynamo, with us approaching it not in a very good staffing condition. It’s necessary for us to understand what to do with that and how to solve this situation.
In the last round, we’re facing a very interesting and entertaining match, which will decide the title winner. We will not play to draw, although this suits us. We will show our football and give our all to win it
Valeriy Bondar, defender:
- Very important game, we had to win it. At the second stage of the championship, there are no easy opponents, with each round proving this fact. Nobody surrenders without a fight, no one wants to lose. Today, we also psyched ourselves up for the victory in order to not look back at the outcome of the parallel match in Lviv, having realistic opportunities to excel in the first half, when Sahutkin hit the post and Hlahola found himself one on one with the keeper. Usually, we convert such chances in training, with every ball hitting the back of the net in our previous meetings, and this time we just seemed to lack some luck. As it happens in such matches, the opponents launched just one counterattack, scored a goal and dropped deep again. In the second half, it was difficult to overcome that kind of defence, but we still had to play our passing game quicker, moving the ball from one wing to the other, deliver it into the penalty area and try to shoot, just push it into the net there. It was also necessary to squeeze the maximum of our set pieces and to score goals, but it didn’t work. In the last round, we’re facing a very interesting and entertaining match, which will decide the title winner. We will not play to draw, although this suits us. We will show our football and give our all to win it.
- Very important game, we had to win it. At the second stage of the championship, there are no easy opponents, with each round proving this fact. Nobody surrenders without a fight, no one wants to lose. Today, we also psyched ourselves up for the victory in order to not look back at the outcome of the parallel match in Lviv, having realistic opportunities to excel in the first half, when Sahutkin hit the post and Hlahola found himself one on one with the keeper. Usually, we convert such chances in training, with every ball hitting the back of the net in our previous meetings, and this time we just seemed to lack some luck. As it happens in such matches, the opponents launched just one counterattack, scored a goal and dropped deep again. In the second half, it was difficult to overcome that kind of defence, but we still had to play our passing game quicker, moving the ball from one wing to the other, deliver it into the penalty area and try to shoot, just push it into the net there. It was also necessary to squeeze the maximum of our set pieces and to score goals, but it didn’t work. In the last round, we’re facing a very interesting and entertaining match, which will decide the title winner. We will not play to draw, although this suits us. We will show our football and give our all to win it.