Slavia are ready physically and dangerous from set pieces – Kucher

Dnipro-1 are experiencing line-up problems on the eve of the Europa League qualifying match against Slavia. Oleksandr Kucher, head coach of the team, spoke about this at the pre-match press conference.

The specialist also considers the upcoming match difficult for his players.

“Before each game, the teams’ chances are almost equal – 50 to 50. Everything depends on these two matches – tomorrow in the field of Slavia and in the second leg in Kosice, where we will receive the opponent.

– The opponent is physically ready. Slavia play dangerously in set pieces, arriving in the penalty area for seven or eight players. The team is fast and plays vertically, trying to quickly deliver the ball to someone else’s penalty area. Many flanks serve, then a group of players go to complete the attack. We have to play carefully tomorrow, because lately we have been giving a lot of gifts to our opponents and some unnecessary mistakes appear. We have to play defensively carefully and tightly tomorrow.

As for the injured, yes – there will be no Miroshnichenko and Volynets, there are questions about Pikhalyonok, who has a fever – he did not even come for training, but stayed at the hotel. So we will make a decision about it tomorrow. Let’s see how he feels.

– We have been doing this for a long time. We lived in Kosice, now we live in Uzhgorod. Yes, it’s a big move, but we’re used to it all and it’s everyday life for us. Of course, all this is difficult, because there are alarms, shelling, our people are suffering, but we found words that the guys should satisfy their fans and all Ukrainians in their own game, so that fans can have at least some kind of outlet in sports and football.

– Of course, I hope that people who moved here to Prague and to the Czech Republic as a whole will come tomorrow to support us. It would be great, and we need it first. We know that all the tickets have been sold, and it is very good for us, because we missed the fans, because now we are playing in empty stands. Of course, it’s great when the arena is full and let them support both the opponent and you. Because the game is different when there are fans in the stands.

– Yes, of course, we are always in touch and talking. We played a lot together, we were friends. He will come to our hotel today, and we will talk about different things.

– I haven’t entered the field yet, but I immediately went to your press conference. Yes, I know that the field is not in good condition, that it is torn, but we have to ride, because we have to understand what awaits us tomorrow. After all, we can’t go and not try it. We’ll have a little workout, about half an hour, more like a warm-up – and that’s it. But men must feel it and understand how it works. Everywhere different coatings and different rebounds. We recently played against Panathinaikos, and there the rebound was very difficult, because here we got the first goal. So we have to go out and understand what awaits us tomorrow.

– Of course, Artem is a loss for us. He was released, because there was an agreement with the club. I want to thank him for the time he spent with us and for the fact that he did everything well, so I want to wish him good luck to succeed in Girona. We will decide on Pikhalyonok tomorrow. Tanchik has a red card, and this is also a question. But we have players who can replace them. We don’t have that with only 11 players playing. We have everyone in the cage, everyone comes out and can play in one position or another, so I don’t see any particular problem with it.

– Opened all cards at once (smiles). Of course, the boys joined us. Today we will train, talk, see how they are doing, and we will watch tomorrow. Maybe you will see them tomorrow,” Kucher quoted the official website of Dnepr-1.

Recall that Dnipro-1 was strengthened by two famous Ukrainians before the Europa League game against Slavia.