Viktor Skrypnyk, head coach of Luhansk’s “Zorya,” on the hard-fought victory over “Polissya”:
-“Polissya has been a good team in recent years, with a strong roster and excellent play. They compete on equal footing with Shakhtar and Dynamo.”
“Zorya” is a team of tough guys. We want to focus on ourselves. Two months ago, we played against “Polissya”—it ended 0–0. They also played with a deep defensive block back then. We had chances to win that game, too.
We conceded an early goal. Then we readjusted. One of our players came out of the defense to mark the opponent’s defensive midfielder. Two of our forwards pressed the opponents. The opponent passed the ball back to the goalkeeper, and he had to make a decision. We played one-on-one in the second half. We looked strong physically, and I was confident we could hold on. That’s exactly what the game showed.
-Captain Pylyp Budkivsky wasn’t in the starting lineup.
-He had an injury. He hadn’t trained for three days. The same goes for Bohdan Kushnirenko. They both usually start from the opening whistle, but this time it was different. We need players like them. But those who played from the start today made a good impression.
-Would you say that fate gave you today what you failed to capitalize on in the first two rounds, and that Zorya made the most of their half-chances?
-What “half-chances”? Please name Polissya’s 100% chances for me.
We hit the goalkeeper and still created good scoring opportunities. We could have won 3–2 or 4–3. I don’t want to belittle my team. They gave it their all today.
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