Match №7

The match № 7, group A, second tournament day

UKRAINE – ESTONIA 2:0 (1:0)

January25th, 2014, St. Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 250 spectators

Referees: Vasily Miroshnichenko, Dmitry Zhvakin, Yegor Bolkhovitin

Ukaraine: Tkachenko, Pysko, Vakulenko, Prindeta, Mishnev (Svatok, 46), Yurchenko, Memeshev (Bliznichenko, 64), Kalitvinzev (c) (Akulinin, 78), Totovitsky (Puchkovsky, 46), Malinovsky (Myakushko, 57), Gonchar

Head coach: Sergey Kovalets

Estonia: Aland, Elhi, Mets, Pikk (Gussev, 65), Lepistu (c) (Raudsepp, 46), Marin (Vaelja, 85), Kauber (Aloe, 61), Vashchuk (Kirss, 72) Tekko (Ustaal, 73), Vihmann (Martynov, 85), Kukebal

Head coach: Martin Reim

Goals: Totovitsky (7, pen.), Akulinin (89, pen.)

Yellow cards: Svatok (46), Mets (88)

Red cards: Kukebal (8)

Best players: Vitaly Preindeta, Richard Aland

 

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After match comments

Head coach of team Ukraine Sergey Kovalets:

– I can say we trained scheme of play 11 to 10 today. Our opponent closed all zones; we had a few moments to score, but the goalkeeper of Estonia showed his best. The match wasn't very spectacular as people like, but our opponent showed a brilliant defense play.

– Would you be very upset if the opponent could level the score?

– I've already told that we use this tournament as one of the preparation steps to qualifying round of European Championship. Our aim is to look through all players we have in the team. From the point of moral it wouldn't be good if we let the goal in, but even in such situation we would have the possibility to estimate the potential of the team, players' character and power of their spirit.

– Do you look after the other teams? For example, your opponent has the forward with Ukrainian origins –

– Do you mean Bogdan Vashchuk? They also have Gusev. For sure, we have detailed analysis of other teams. If we are interested in someone, we pay attention for this person. Each team has its stars. They just need a hard work with them. They need to be helped. They are still children in the whole. Yes, some of them do first steps on professional level, but it is not very important now. If they succeed to become the good men, they won't lose their way in football.

– For the certain moment, your team is the first that has qualified to the quarter finals. Whom would you like as the opponent there?

– It's always interesting for me to play against strong opponents. This tournament has a very good lineup of teams and we will respect anyone whom we'll play against.

Head coach of team Estonia Martin Reim:

– I congratulate Ukrainian team with the victory! It is hard to comment anything. We didn't expect to play the whole match 10 for 11. But such games are very useful for the experience, for the future. We had to change our tactics during the match. We were waiting the moment our opponent would be mistaking, giving us a chance to make scoring moments. That's what had happened. We had two perfect scoring moments but we still lack individual skills. By the way, it is the second time that we play the second match of this tournament in 10 players: last year it was totally the same, but the opponent was Belarus team. It looks like Déjà vu.

– After the red card you still demanded your team to attack. In some moments Vashchuk tried to help in defense but you asked him to remain in front line.

– For sure, by that moment we were losing 0:1. I like desire of my players to work not only in attack, but in defense. It is laudable. But, we had to try to level the score. How could we do this without forward ahead? That is why I asked him to remain in central zone and defenders had to deliver ball to him to start counter attacks.

– Was it difficult to make such an organized and coordinated squad? What is better: to conduct the equable team or the team with some stars?

– I will be satisfied with both variants as a coach. Probably, it is easy to work with equable team, with average staff. But I like the idea to work with football stars. The main moment is to make a football star work without ball. It is more difficult but in the case of success there will be victories. We have such a player in the team, he stands apart by his potential. This player is Karol Mets. He has one match for the national team already in his biography. We understand each other quite well.