Rukh snatched a draw in the match against Shakhtar thanks to a goal from Roman Didyk in second-half stoppage time
Head coach Rukha Vitaly Ponomarev commented on the draw against Shakhtar (1:1) within the 15th round UPL.
“Today, the team, given its age, lacks stability and this is quite normal. We can play a high-quality match with Shakhtar, and then Rukh plays a low-quality match with conditional outsiders. I am grateful to the guys for this game, because not every team can force Shakhtar to play to maintain the score.”
“I think that in the second half we completely outplayed the opponent, so this result is natural. Rukh was better in terms of intensity, played better and created more chances. The team played with three central defenders until the 60th minute, and after the 60th minute they played with a more attacking 4-3-3 formation. We knew that Shakhtar would not be in the best physical condition after the match in the Champions League, so we were preparing for this. Therefore, we wanted to add it precisely in this period – to play more intensely in the second half. Apart from the set-piece goal, the opponent actually had no scoring chances in this match. I am convinced that both tactical schemes have justified themselves. The substitutions also strengthened the game – Ilya Kvasnitsa, Oleg Fedor and Klyver added sharpness to the attack.”
“There is no goal yet to fight for European Cups. Rukh must try to win every game, and the players must develop. I would like more of our players to play for the youth team. Now we have another player from the main team of the country.”
“It’s difficult to evaluate the current results in the first round, because to do this you need to analyze all the matches of our team. There is no need to draw conclusions in hot pursuit, as they can be deceptive. Yes, we had unsuccessful matches and unnecessary points losses, but there were reasons for this too. There were matches where we drew, but showed high-quality play. It’s still clear that the team is progressing, but there is still a lot of work ahead.”
Thanks to today’s draw, Rukh rose to 8th place in the tournament table. Vitaly Ponomarev’s team scored 19 points.
It is curious that during the first lap Rukh took points from all three leaders of the Ukrainian championship. The Lviv team played 0:0 with Dynamo, 1:1 with Alexandria, and now there is a draw against the current national champion, Shakhtar.
Rukh will play his next match on December 4 against Polesie. This game has been postponed from the 1st round due to the participation of Lviv club players at the 2024 Olympic Games as part of the Ukrainian national team.
Source: Sportarena
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