General Director of Lada Yakubov: “Let Avangard win the Gagarin Cup. We will be happy if we lose against the champions.”

General Director of Togliatti Lada Rafik Yakubov wished Omsk Avangard to win the Gagarin Cup this season.

On Saturday, Avangard beat “Lada” with a score of 4:0 and qualified for the second round of the Fonbet KHL Championship playoffs.

— Before the season, many believed that Lada would not even reach the playoffs.

“You weren’t the only one who thought so.” This was the opinion of many. But Lada played very well, this is a great success for the team in the first year. Return to the KHL and immediately reach the playoffs. It’s worth a lot, to be honest.

We just went into the locker room and said, “Guys, thank you very much. » The city of Togliatti is once again experiencing a hockey boom. I think we had a great season. And in the playoffs, they fought against a good team. In general, after the series, I wished good luck to the leaders of Avangard, including Anton Kuryanov. He said this: “We would be happy if we lost to the champions. I wish you good luck for the rest of the playoffs! »

— Many were even surprised that you made Oleg Bratash the main one. We didn’t know him well as a coach.

– Well, how can you not know him? After all, he coached the Russian national team and worked with the Olympic team. We knew Bratash well. Yes, he didn’t work in the KHL, but everyone starts somewhere. Perhaps there was a risk, but it was justified,” Yakubov told .

Lada has not played in the KHL since the 2017/18 season and returned this season. In the first season after returning, the Togliatti club took seventh place in the Eastern Conference and reached the playoffs.

Watch live broadcasts of Fonbet KHL Championship matches on Match Group channels, matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru websites.