Experienced Dynamo Kyiv winger Andriy Yarmolenko spoke to UPL TV after the home match against Epitsentr (3:0), in which he opened the scoring and equalled the Ukrainian league scoring record with 124 goals.
– Andriy, first of all, could you give us a quick comment on the game? It seemed that the match was difficult in the first half… Especially the second part of the first half, it felt that way.
– I think you’re right. Probably not everything worked out for us in the first half, but credit to Epitsentr. They looked good, and it’s interesting to play against teams like this because you can see their structure and their ideas, and they build up from the back. When you play against such teams, you always have to think on the pitch.
Probably, we didn’t create enough chances in the first half, but once you score, the course of the match changes and it becomes much easier to play. Their coach said before the game that a draw away against Dynamo would be a good result, but for us a draw is like a defeat. We hadn’t scored or won in two matches, so of course we wanted to win today.
– You scored today and equalled the Ukrainian league scoring record – 124 goals. To be honest, I don’t remember seeing everyone in Ukrainian football root for a record like this so much. How did you experience that moment when you scored, and what are your emotions now? Because it seems like you aren’t even showing much joy…
– I’m happy because the team finally won. We kept a clean sheet, and I’m happy about that too. As for the goals coming, I never doubted that they would. The most important thing is not to give up. In the previous game against LNZ, we had enough chances – I don’t know how I managed not to score when I missed the empty net from a metre away. But that’s football, sometimes these things happen. You have to keep moving forward, keep training and not put your head down.
– You are generally a very self-critical person. We saw that when the results weren’t going well, you went on social media and spoke to the fans. How satisfied are you with your performance in today’s match?
– When an attacking player scores, that’s good. But if I look at the match as a whole, I can’t say that I’m satisfied with my performance. For example, I played much better against LNZ than I did today… But that’s football. Sometimes you play well but don’t score, and sometimes you play poorly, get one chance and take it.
