“Any game is better than training”
Defender of the Ukrainian national team and Dynamo Kyiv Alexander Karavaev commented on the victory in a friendly match against the Polish Lechia (2:0).
– Was physical activity important in this game or did the coaching staff give instructions to develop the structure of the game?
– It seems to me that there were a lot of discussions about this sparring, that UEFA insisted on it, but we have one official game, we could have prepared without it. What we were told to do, we did it. As coaches always told us, any game is better than training. Therefore, we made a game, worked out our tasks and schemes. That is, this is also very important. Tomorrow I think we will review this game, look at the mistakes and good moments. We will be preparing specifically for the Italian national team. Everything turned out well, we played some sparring and are preparing for Italy.
– What do you think of the opponent’s level? The team plays in the second strongest league, but there are quite serious ambitions there.
– The first thing that made an impression was the stadium. Very big, beautiful. As I understand it, this stadium once hosted Euro 2012. The team is also of a good level. If they hadn’t told me that this was a Second League team, I would have thought that they were playing in the Major League. A good, ambitious team. I think that in the near future they will play in the Major League. It turned out to be a good sparring match, I think it was a plus for us.
– The result today didn’t matter much.
– The result always has weight and meaning. The result is the result. When it’s positive, it’s a completely different attitude, different preparation. Especially when we are superior to our opponents in all aspects. Today, more important than the result was to fulfill the task that the coaching staff gave us, to see how it would be in the game.
The decisive qualifying match for Euro 2024 between the national teams of Ukraine and Italy will take place on November 20 in Leverkusen, Germany at the BayArena stadium (starts at 21:45 Kyiv time).
#game #training
2023-11-17 21:04:00
