Acting head coach of Dynamo Ihor Kostiuk answered questions from the media after the 5th matchday of the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage against Fiorentina (1:2).
– Do you think the result was fair? Was the team lacking confidence in the first half?
– In both halves we created enough chances and fast attacks but unfortunately we didn’t deliver the ball properly into the finishing zone. In the second half we slightly changed our structure focusing on delivering the ball into the decisive area with better quality. You saw that we had more attacks but unfortunately the finishing wasn’t good enough – there were no quality passes into the penalty area.
The opponent used their chances and scored twice. Of course in the final third they had players of high quality and that’s why they scored two goals.
– At a certain point in the second half it seemed that Dynamo were playing better and Fiorentina were even a bit scared. But then, after Fiorentina changed their tactics, Dynamo again started to play a bit worse…
– Of course we had studied the opponent, and statistics are stubborn. They gave us grounds in the second half to play more aggressively, because we knew that statistically Fiorentina tend to drop off after halftime, especially in the early stages of the second half. We took advantage of that, seized the initiative, scored a goal and had many opportunities for fast attacks. We carried them out but again – finishing and passes into the final zone lacked quality.
We understood and saw that Fiorentina’s coach changed tactics but by that point we were already losing 1:2 and were sending many players forward. At that scoreline the opponent wasn’t creating chances near our goal.
– You know Vladyslav Zakharchenko very well from the U19 team and now he is taking his first steps with the senior team. How would you assess his performance against such forwards as Moise Kean and Edin Džeko?
– I’ve known Vladyslav for a long time since youth team days. I think today he played at a proper level but overall in the penalty area our centre-backs didn’t always manage to reorganize quickly enough and opponents had an advantage there.
Overall he played reliably except for the moments when crosses came into the box and the height of Džeko and the pressure from Kean allowed Fiorentina to score the first goal and create the situation for the second. But I think this is a great experience for Zakharchenko and he coped well – he wasn’t nervous and he played like an experienced player.
