On qualification for Champions League knock-out stage:
- I promised our players significant bonuses, but it’s not about money. The thing is that even before the game against Maccabi everyone was saying Dynamo already reached play-offs. Only I didn’t think so. I was nervous till the final whistle. We’ve covered this distance worthily. Of course the key match was in Portugal. In the Champions League one must fight for reputation of the club first of all and only then – for money and qualification for next stage.
On preferable opponents:
- I don’t want us to face Barcelona, Bayern or Read Madrid. It will be okay if we oppose Wolfsburg or ManchesterCity. These are also very good teams, but Bayern are more experienced. They are real machine.
On possible transfer of Yarmolenko:
- I know it was a right decision to make Yarmolenko stay. What’s really important is that Andriy understands that, so he’s signed new five-year contract with the club. Still if we get worthy transfer offers we’ll discuss them. I’ve talked to Andriy Shevchenko about that and he totally supports me.
Let’s wait for drawing. If we get Barcelona or Bayern we won’t have good chances to out play them. I don’t know what happens next, but if we get good offer for Yarmolenko we’ll let him go. It’s not money I care about first of all. The club Yarmolenko joins should be like Milan when they signed Shevchenko. The whole Ukraine started supporting Milan. Maybe we’ll get transfer offers not only for Yarmolenko. Players are not slaves. I want young performers to know that their way to big football won’t be blocked.
On Serhiy Rebrov:
- This is the first time in many years the position of head coach doesn’t bother me. I totally trust Rebrov. He’s making headway and he wants to work. He’s mostly going through success so far, but I guess he’ll also have to go through failures. After we lost against Shakhtar 0:3 I told the team: “That’s okay. It’s a kind of cold shower for you. It’s better to have it now than when you face Chelsea”. We drew against Chelsea 0:0 and that draw let us reach the Champions League play-offs.
On security at the stadium:
- We’ve arrested three people, who took part in that incident. We’ve also lodged an appeal to UEFA. I promise those people will be punished. I’ve also assigned new head of security department of our club. We’ll take all security issues very seriously. We’ll do our best, but we can’t put security in front of every seat.
I’m sure it was a provocation at the match against Chelsea, but not racism. We know who can arrange such provocations from outside our country. We must do whatever it takes to avoid such incidents. There’s no point in investing money into football if we play important Champions League matches and international games behind closed doors only because someone wants to wear fascists’ cross on his chest. We must unite and not distinguish whites, reds, blacks and oranges.
New Year wishes:
- I won’t ask for the Champion League trophy, because that is unreal. I want next year my family to be healthy and my team to play really well. I want war to be finally over. If someone says we don’t want to play at Donbas Arena he’s wrong. I hope we’ll play there again.
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