We achieved our goal
Saturday, August 10, 2019
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Shakhtar manager Luis Castro reflects on the victory over Dynamo in Kyiv, the scoring chances, and variation in the play
- Mister, are you satisfied with the result and the performance?
- Yes, of course. I’m content with the result because we expected only victory. The team performed very well in every situation. Sometimes it happens that you want to win, but not everything works out on the pitch. However, today the guys have done well. From the first minute, Shakhtar showed the will to win. We fully dominated it, except for the dying five to ten minutes, when Dynamo pressed us against our goal. And even then, we managed to create chances: in the end, we could have netted the third one, earlier hitting the woodwork ... Dynamo also had some scoring opportunities, but fewer. The most important thing is that today we have achieved the goal and will be preparing for the next match now.
- Aren't you disappointed that Dynamo converted their first scoring opportunity in the first half?
- Of course, that’s always disappointing. The opponents once reached our goal and scored, while we had so many chances, and couldn’t convert all of them ... But that’s football. We must accept everything and react in the right way. We did well in the second half, operated variably, succeeding to carry out attacks down the centre, through the right wing, as well as down the left one. We managed to achieve our goal. And we succeeded in keeping a very dangerous player Mikolenko under control, also to move the ball to the centre after flank attacks - the dynamics were perfect thanks to Bolbat, Marlos, and Solomon. We caused Dynamo many difficulties. Credit for the variability goes to the whole team. In general, there was a very good performance on our part. Just like our first match against Dynamo in the Super Cup, but with a different outcome.
- When can we see Kovalenko and Malyshev?
- At the moment, I would like to talk more about the fielded players. Hopefully, the injured ones will be back soon. As for Malyshev, you know that his injury is for many months. Kovalenko, I hope, will be back in the ranks in two to three weeks. Before the match, I already spoke on this topic – the information is available on the official website. We learned from the medical department that Viktor’s injury is more complicated than we thought. We are expecting him to recover as soon as possible and to join us after two to three weeks.
- Are the team already close to the performance you want them to deliver?
- Yes, I want the players to display attacking football and create multiple scoring chances. Being one of the contenders for the title, we turned in a great performance: possession of the ball, the number of corners and free-kicks, attacking dynamics down the wings ... I think today's victory also proves that our play is applied at Shakhtar. I would like to convert more of the chances created, but the problem of effectiveness will always be present in football because they never succeed in scoring in every situation.
- What did your men manage to accomplish, and what didn’t work out?
- They didn’t manage to score the number of goals that we could and should have netted. I also want the team not to be so broken during the opponents’ counterattacks, narrowing down instead and getting more compact. It's more about the second half. This is due to the fact that we began to lack energy a bit, in fact, just like Dynamo. The heat was felt ... It’s clear that such matches require maximum intensity, but teams may periodically experience some problems like that. We lacked conversion of our chances and better decision-making in the last third of the pitch - we got there very well and quite easily, but the solutions were far from perfect. We could have scored more goals.
- Yes, of course. I’m content with the result because we expected only victory. The team performed very well in every situation. Sometimes it happens that you want to win, but not everything works out on the pitch. However, today the guys have done well. From the first minute, Shakhtar showed the will to win. We fully dominated it, except for the dying five to ten minutes, when Dynamo pressed us against our goal. And even then, we managed to create chances: in the end, we could have netted the third one, earlier hitting the woodwork ... Dynamo also had some scoring opportunities, but fewer. The most important thing is that today we have achieved the goal and will be preparing for the next match now.
- Aren't you disappointed that Dynamo converted their first scoring opportunity in the first half?
- Of course, that’s always disappointing. The opponents once reached our goal and scored, while we had so many chances, and couldn’t convert all of them ... But that’s football. We must accept everything and react in the right way. We did well in the second half, operated variably, succeeding to carry out attacks down the centre, through the right wing, as well as down the left one. We managed to achieve our goal. And we succeeded in keeping a very dangerous player Mikolenko under control, also to move the ball to the centre after flank attacks - the dynamics were perfect thanks to Bolbat, Marlos, and Solomon. We caused Dynamo many difficulties. Credit for the variability goes to the whole team. In general, there was a very good performance on our part. Just like our first match against Dynamo in the Super Cup, but with a different outcome.
- When can we see Kovalenko and Malyshev?
- At the moment, I would like to talk more about the fielded players. Hopefully, the injured ones will be back soon. As for Malyshev, you know that his injury is for many months. Kovalenko, I hope, will be back in the ranks in two to three weeks. Before the match, I already spoke on this topic – the information is available on the official website. We learned from the medical department that Viktor’s injury is more complicated than we thought. We are expecting him to recover as soon as possible and to join us after two to three weeks.
- Are the team already close to the performance you want them to deliver?
- Yes, I want the players to display attacking football and create multiple scoring chances. Being one of the contenders for the title, we turned in a great performance: possession of the ball, the number of corners and free-kicks, attacking dynamics down the wings ... I think today's victory also proves that our play is applied at Shakhtar. I would like to convert more of the chances created, but the problem of effectiveness will always be present in football because they never succeed in scoring in every situation.
- What did your men manage to accomplish, and what didn’t work out?
- They didn’t manage to score the number of goals that we could and should have netted. I also want the team not to be so broken during the opponents’ counterattacks, narrowing down instead and getting more compact. It's more about the second half. This is due to the fact that we began to lack energy a bit, in fact, just like Dynamo. The heat was felt ... It’s clear that such matches require maximum intensity, but teams may periodically experience some problems like that. We lacked conversion of our chances and better decision-making in the last third of the pitch - we got there very well and quite easily, but the solutions were far from perfect. We could have scored more goals.