Dynamo head coach Igor Kostyuk answered questions from the media after the second leg of the 3rd qualifying round of the Conference League away against Qarabag, which ended in a 2:0 victory for the Azerbaijani side.
– In your opinion, what did Qarabag change in their game after the first match that influenced today’s game?
– Qarabag made the most of their opportunities and that played a key role.
– Comment on the episode at the beginning of the second half when Brazhko lost the ball and Jankovic went through on goal. During the game, your emotions were quite intense. What can you say about it now?
– You saw it: in the second half, we took the initiative and started playing higher up the pitch. I believe we created three clear-cut chances that we needed to score. But the game does not forgive missed opportunities: where we failed to score, unfortunately, we conceded. Overall, we controlled the game in the second half. We transitioned well from defense to attack, won the ball back, moved forward quickly and created chances. But, unfortunately, today we lacked both luck and quality to score those goals. You saw the chances we had.
– We noticed your team playing a lot of “aerial balls” during the game. Was this related to the tactics for this match?
– In the first half, you saw that the opposition played aggressively and pressed us very tightly. Therefore, we did not want to engage in challenges and lose the ball near our own penalty area. We played through Ponomarenko so that he could hold up the ball and help us get out of defense.
In the second half, the opposition dropped deeper somewhat, and we began to control the ball more confidently. After the 25th–30th minute, we started playing with more confidence. I want to emphasize once again: the opposition pressed very tightly. Unfortunately, we did not always manage to play out of that press with confidence.
