The player spent this day preparing for away match against FC Karpaty Lviv at the White-Blues training complex. After the training session Olexandr told how he was going to spend his birthday:
- Birthday isn’t a reason to cancel preparation for the match (smiling). In the morning my wife and parents congratulated me. In the evening I’ll have dinner with my close ones and that’s it. My wife has already prepared a present for me, but I have no idea what it can be.
Of course it’s a good feast, but we work as usually. We have really tight schedule, so there’s no time fore celebration. We have ambitious goals. Now we are in for away match against FC Karpaty Lviv, after that we are to face FC Shakhtar Donetsk. It’s necessary to stay focused.
- How did your teammates congratulate you?
- Everyone congratulated me individually and then the head coach said several words during the theoretical class. I’ve also got a shirt from the team.
- You are to play one match every three days. Is that good or bad?
- It’s better to play than to practice. I think such schedule is good for us. We are in good physical conditions, so I guess there will be no problems.
- They say Dynamo have started playing more orderly. Do you pay special attention to defense?
- We work a lot on tactics both for attack and defense. I think it’s noticeable that we’ve improved team play. The game against FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk was an exception in some way as bad turf didn’t let us demonstrate our best qualities.
- What does the forthcoming match against FC Shakhtar Donetsk mean to you?
- I don’t have special attitude to Karpaty, Shakhtar or Metalurh. We must do our best to achieve success in every match.
- You know peculiarities of Shakhtar play. What can Dynamo set against Donetsk side?
- Shakhtar head coach has been working for the team for eight years already. Players have great mutual understanding. We must be the sole team and stay totally focused on win. Anyway the game will be spectacular.
- Will it be the key match in the battle for Premiership?
- I think it will be one of decisive matches. Everyone understands what this game means to our club. If we lose we’ll have no more chances for Premiership.
Copyright © 2014 FC Dynamo Kyiv
* photo by A. Lukatskyi