We aimed for nothing but victory
Sunday, April 25, 2021
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Oleksandriia head coach Volodymyr Sharan speaks about the home victory over Shakhtar and his gratitude to the fans and the club president
“After the Cup tie, it was difficult to motivate the guys for a serious fight, so I said that it was good that Shakhtar were coming to us. It seems to me that if we had had different opponents, our players wouldn’t have recovered from the cup defeat so well. I’m very grateful to them for the fact that they took the field and gave their all on the football field to win it. And we aimed for nothing but victory. We got off to a shaky start - we saw that kind of uncertainty in previous matches as well. We understood that it was really tough mentally. Thank God, we didn't concede any goals in the opening 15 minutes, and then the game levelled off, the guys felt confident about their abilities, and most importantly, they withstood it physically. There was much pressure, for which we psyched up the players. We set them up for the cup match against Zorya in the same way but, unfortunately, we experienced some personnel issues, namely, the unpreparedness of the players we were counting upon. Today, in the second half, when we scored the second goal, to be frank I got surprised that we’d been able to keep that pace again, put pressure and not allow Shakhtar to do anything. I understand that they had some staffing problems, but that’s Shakhtar - the brand of our football. Therefore, this is a historic victory for us - the first home victory. I’m very grateful to the fans for their support, I heard them shouting out load and supporting me personally. It’s really nice to work at the same club for 11 years with a break for just one year 2012 ... I’m really grateful to the fans for that. And I’m grateful to the president for the fact that, despite our standing, he again supported us with bonuses for this game.”