Dynamo midfielder Oleksandr Pikhalonok shared his impressions after the final home match of the season against Kudrivka, in which the White-Blues won 3:2.
— Kudrivka had a chance not only to secure a place in the relegation playoffs, but to fully stay in the Premier League, so they fought from the very first second. In the first half, as I see it, they had three shots and scored two goals. We will not analyze it anymore because we are heading on vacation, but we controlled the game, although we made mistakes that led to conceding goals.
— Dynamo set an unwanted record — 36 goals conceded in a season. This is the first such показатель since the 2019/2020 season, though back then there were 32 rounds instead of 30. In your opinion, what is the reason?
— We need to work better on this in training, so that not only the defense, but the whole team acts more effectively, and so that we do not concede so many goals.
— How difficult is it to go out and play after a night like this, with shelling?
— Yes, it is not easy, but I think both we and Kudrivka were in the same conditions. Thank God, we finished this championship on a positive note today and saw the game through to victory.
— Yarmolenko could have set a record today. Was there an instruction to play more for him?
— We were already playing more for him anyway (smiles). And honestly, it is good that he did not score — it means he will stay with us and keep playing, which is only a plus for us.
— So he is definitely not retiring?
— Probably, but you should ask him directly because I cannot answer for him.
— Was the task for Yarmolenko to score two goals, or наоборот not to score, so he would stay for next season? Because in tournament terms the match did not decide much for Dynamo.
— We really wanted Andriy Mykolaiovych to score, but unfortunately it did not happen. The main task was to win and not allow the opponents to quickly break into counterattacks. But unfortunately, today they managed to do that too often and scored their second goal against us. That is how it turned out.
— What conclusions can you draw from the season overall?
— What is there to sum up? Winning the Cup is great, but fourth place in the league for a club like Dynamo is, I think, a failure. Even if it had been third or second place, that would still be a failure. For Dynamo, only gold medals mean a good season.
— What are your plans for the near future? Will there be a vacation?
— Yes, I will have a vacation. I am not going to the national team, so I will rest. I plan to stay in Ukraine and spend time with my family. Then we will go to training camp, and I will not see them for one or two months, depending on how we perform in European qualification. I hope we make it to the group stage and that everything goes well.
— Roman Yaremchuk was at the stadium today. Did he come into the dressing room?
— Yes, he did. He did not say anything special — he just congratulated us on the win, said it had been a difficult night, and that he had not experienced something like that in a long time.
— How can Dynamo lure him back?
— We are trying (smiles). But that is not a question for me — you should ask him instead.
