KYRGYZSTAN – KAZAKHSTAN 2:2 (0:1)

January 21st, 2016, St. Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 200 spectators

Best players: Baktyiar Duishobekov, Yerkebulan Tunggyshbayev

Post match comments

Mirlan Eshenov, Head coach of team Kyrgyzstan:

– Thank you for the game. It was a hard one. The opponent was really strong. You've seen how team Kazakhstan was able to go forward even when they were ten, how they created moments and scored the second goal. Our play wasn't that successful. We wanted to get more control over the ball, but we lacked some sharpness in creation. We scored from standards in all three games.

– Did you give instructions to play active and aggressive football and high tough pressing?

– Yes, that's the third game that we are trying to play this way: tough with the opponent, meeting them high and preventing them from developing their attacks. Our task was to deprive the opponent of space and not to let them run forward. We watched the games of team Kazakhstan and we were preparing. But they played well, even with a red card they went forward playing actively.

– Why didn't the players calm down and start playing looking at the score after they scored the first goal and gained the numeral advantage? And why did the team play worse than before and managed to press only in the stoppage time?

– That must have been due to my lack of words. I told them: calm down, don't be distracted by provocations. I may have not reached them or they failed to hear. I wanted to calm them down. But the players are so young, 19-20 years old.

– What does your team lack to score in play?

– We've played only three games here so far. We don't have any playing duos, and the guys sometimes fail to make the right decision in play. We are not a club where one can be training some combinations. But it's good that we score at least from standards.

– You let Sagynbaev play for only 20 minutes. Was an injury a reason for the substitution?

– I needed a creator in the attacking line because we had two "small" forwards. But then I decided to send a bit more experienced player on the pitch. I explained it to Sagynbaev after, and he understood. He wasn't offended.

Serik Abdualiyev, Head coach of team Kazakhstan:

– I congratulate Kyrgyzstan with the second place in the group. They will play to win medals now. We knew this game would be decisive for us as we knew the Belarus - Moldova result. That's why we had not just to win, but to win with a two-goal difference. I want to thank my entire team, as everyone did well today. They showed their best side, demonstrating moral qualities and will. I don't have any pretensions. Thanks for the game. And once again I congratulate Kyrgyzstan.

– We liked Ivan Antipov very much. Why did you substitute him in the second half?

– He was born in 1996 and he comes from Uralsk. Ivan is a great kid, who has been playing at a high level for a long time. This was a forced substitution.

– Those who follow your team on the group stage of the tournament can say that the guys are not playing roughly, but they receive a lot of yellow cards still. This applies to the game today as well, when two players were booked already by the 10th minute, one could sent off number six by the 20th minute, and then eventually a red card happened. Are these emotions boiling?

– I don't not why this is happening, but the opposing side didn't get yellow cards for the same kind of fouls, whereas we did. We could talk about biased attitude, but this is not true. We don't play rough and you can see and confirm this, but we got booked a number of times. We get a red card, we get a penalty against, and the opponent gets nothing. We had the same thing during the game with Moldova... Another red card. I am not saying that the referees are doing this on purpose or that they lack quality, but it's just a shame.

– Didn't you want to strengthen defense leading in the game?

– We wanted to make our wings and our whole play stronger. We knew we had to win with a two-goal difference in order to leave Belarus behind. We wanted to continue attacking as we needed to score more. Despite our player was sent off, we added another striker. We were playing to win. Even when the score was 2:1, we were still trying to attack being all in.