Dynamo forward Matvii Ponomarenko shared his emotions after receiving his first call-up to the Ukraine national team and talked about the team’s preparation for the upcoming away match against Oleksandriya:
— The team is preparing for the match against Oleksandriya before the international break. You keep scoring - are you ready for new achievements?
— I’m ready. Everyone is preparing as usual. After the weekend we returned to training. We are ready for the game as it’s the last match in this microcycle before the international break. So we prepare, aim to win, get three points and go to the national team in a good mood. Then we return to the work process.
— You received your debut call-up to the national team. How did you find out and who did you tell first?
— My parents and my girlfriend. I found out when I was added to the national team group - the administrator called and told me I was selected. Honestly I was a little in shock but it was a very pleasant feeling.
— Ruslan Neshcheret said Illia Zabarnyi was the first to congratulate him. Did anyone congratulate you in the chat?
— Not in the chat - no one congratulated me there. But the whole team congratulated me on my debut call-up. It was very nice that guys were so supportive. Again it’s a wonderful feeling.
— After the match you stayed behind to work on finishing. How much does that help improve your attacking play?
— I wouldn’t say it immediately shows an effect but we often stay after training to work on it. I guess that’s why I manage to score in games.
