FC Dynamo Kyiv head coach Oleksandr Shovkovskyi answered media questions after the game against FC Shakhtar Donetsk (0:1).
- What did you lack to win today?
- Goals.
- The second half differed from the first one a lot in terms of creativity. Did you pick the starting lineup correctly?
- I don’t know, but as far as we’ve lost I can say I didn’t. Still if it wasn’t for that penalty, if referee whistled a foul against Buialskyi, maybe things would have been different. Shakhtar are good team that plays attacking football, so we knew we would have to defend as well, not just attack.
It’s bitter to lose because of a penalty, especially a dubious one. There some controversial episodes like that foul against Buialskyi I’ve mentioned, but we have what we have. Unfortunately we lost a lot of points in the first part of the season.
- What will the team focus on in remaining games?
- Any defeat is not the end, any victory is not a final success. You need to have courage to play no matter what. We are born with the will to win. Every day we work on our will and character while the victory itself is a matter of honor. I didn’t say that, those are Winston Churchill’s words.
- What do Dynamo need to do this summer to win the league next season?
- It’s not a final press conference. It’s a press conference after this particular game that has just finished. We’ll draw conclusions, but later. We still need to play two more games. We’re getting ready for each one, we have our plan and strategy.
What do we need to do? A lot of things it’s too soon to discuss. After the season ends the national team will be getting ready for Euro-2024. We also have Olympic team, U19, U21. A lot of Dynamo players will be performing for these teams. We need to figure out how we’re going to get ready for the next season.
There’s an interesting competition for players, who can represent the Olympic team. Seven of our players can be invited to participate after the UPL season. It ends on June 17 while our team is supposed to gather around the 20th which means they won’t have rest. So far I have no idea how we’re going to get ready for the season. Probably it makes sense not to let them play there so that they approached the Olympics in a good shape. These are my thoughts for now.
Besides you know the euro cups format changes and there will be games in December, in January… So far we don’t know our logistics and I don’t know how things are going to work out.
