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Valdas Dambrauskas, Ludogorets’s coach in Razgrad, was voted the best football coach of the year in Lithuania, but the strategist’s thoughts are not on that. On Saturday, a Lithuanian derby against club Sofia CSKA awaits the Lithuanian in the Bulgarian league.
At a press conference on Friday, the Lithuanian spoke a lot about the upcoming match, and also included the topic of chess, which was addressed by CSKA strategist Bruno Akrapovičius.
This match is very important for Ludogorec, because last weekend V. Dambrauskas’s team lost 2: 3 against Plovid’s Lokomotiv, so now the Razgrad club has only 3 points against CSKA, so the Sofia club will do everything possible to reach the Lithuanian coach.
– Congratulations on the award for the best Lithuanian coach, but what do you expect from the derby with CSKA?
– Good morning (said in Bulgarian, – author’s note). For me, this will be the first game with CSKA, but for the players it will not be the first time. The players know each other well, as do the teams. It is important that we make the right decisions.
– And how do you feel about a derby of such caliber?
– I feel calm. I have always been like this, both in important championships and in Europe. Emotions cannot affect me. But the emotions in the dressing room are huge. You feel elevated during your workouts. We are very well prepared for this match. What matters is how we behave under pressure, how we behave in difficult times.
– His colleague and future competitor Bruno Akrapovich praised him for working in Croatia.
– Thank you for your words. I respect Bruno Akrapovich. He also worked in Croatia. In the match with CSKA we will compete, we will test our style of play. We will maintain respect after the game. I am younger than him, I can only learn from him. Akrapovich made a serious mark on Plovdiv’s Lokomotiv, and is now in charge of CSKA. But in the next matches, we will show that each of us wants his team to win.
– You like to play chess. What shapes do you like to make with it, black or white? First to attack or first to defend?
– I like to be a leader in both chess and soccer. I like to play with white. That’s why everyone in the club is dressed in white, it’s a kind of symbolism. But soccer is different. In chess, I trust only myself, but in soccer, the players are living beings, the strategy is different. We are prepared for the match with CSKA, we have analyzed the rival well. We must not forget that some of our players have already played against CSKA.
– However, in case of defeat, he will find himself in an atypical role: in the spring he would be in second place in the standings …
– I can’t think of defeat. We train to win. Players do not need additional motivation. The most important thing is to follow tactical discipline. While we play in the first 10 minutes, the second 10 minutes.
– Bruno Akrapovičius said he wants to be a great teacher against Ludogorec? Who will you be, the young attacking Kasparov, or the defender Petrosian?
– I think we pay too much attention to chess. We need to be ready for the game. At the same time, it brings positive emotions, model of game and understanding of the player. There are many things that can happen in a soccer game. In the square, when we are alive, we see things in a certain way. Very different when we see a meeting on a record. If we compare ourselves with Petrosian so that he does not say a word or with Kasparov, we will certainly not act like them. If we love chess so much, why not organize a chess tournament between coaches? We can play with Akrapovich. And then we will see what is better.
– Has the attitude about the importance of the games with CSKA changed after the game with Lokomotiv?
– The position has not changed. We have to defend first. There will be 12 left after this match, 36 points must be earned. This match with the CSKA championship disaster. It will be very important, but whatever happens, there is still a lot to do before the season ends. For a match with CSKA, it would be nice to have fans. I apologize for this situation. This is a disadvantage for both teams. However, we are moving towards these matches with confidence.
– Akrapovičius uses the system Lokomotiv relied on at the CSKA club. It is difficult to defend against him. Will you “play” with schemes?
– I think I can adapt. I like the dynamic style, being one way in defense and another in attack. But the most important thing is the creativity of the players. I used to play in Latvia with three defenders, it is not strange to me. There are many teams in Bulgaria that play defensive football. This is a challenge for us. We scored two goals against Lokomotiv, we were still able to score. However, individual mistakes were made that we lost three goals. Many teams did not score two goals at this stadium. We analyze those games well, we work all week to improve.
– You said this match won’t determine the title, but if you win, do you have any chance of winning at home over CSKA in the playoffs?
– It is difficult to talk about the home advantage at the moment, because there are no fans in the stands. The fans motivate the players. Men want to play in front of someone, for a reason. We have 13 more games and two of them are against CSKA. No, tomorrow’s game is not the hardest and Wednesday will be the hardest for the cup because we get tired. In the game with Etar we got three points and with CSKA we can take them if we win. We all work to make that happen.
– Kiev Dynamo and Donetsk Shakhtar, whom you defeated in the control match, won the European League. Do you expect Ludogorec to be at the same level in this tournament next year around this time?
– Control matches are very different from official ones. I think that if we were to play Shakhtar or Dynamo in Europe, the game would be different. But I believe in my team and I know we can get to that level. Ludogorec is a team with many players from neighboring or smaller countries. I want us to be an example, from a small town, a small country, to a beautiful game in Europe.
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