“Playing open football with France is suicide”

Coach of the Ukrainian national team Andrey Shevchenko At a post-match press conference, he summarized the away draw with the French team (1: 1) in the first round of the 2022 World Cup.

– It was a good game for us. We have fulfilled the plan, for the first time we have played according to such a scheme. It was very difficult because we had little time to prepare. I want to thank my players for their effort and team play. They expended a lot of energy, but this is the only way to stop such a talented team as France. This is a very good result for us: to get a point today.

– The French team had many fouls. Does this mean your game plan worked?

– We have been preparing for this match for a long time, we study our opponent very well. A friendly match also helped, gave us information, to open up and play open football with France today is suicide. We tried to play compactly, to create some pressure on the ball, to close out sharp opponents, in particular Kilian Mbappé. He attacks very well if he has space, constantly changes flank, but was less active today. Today Mbappé was on the left, so we put more players in front of him. One was constantly pressing, and the second was closing the gap. The plan was a success, thanks to our players for their work.

– Why did you release Kovalenko and Zubkov to replace the most attacking with the score 1: 1?

– We try to produce fast players, well developed physically, who can support this level. I think Kovalenko has very good prospects. We saw that Sidorchuk was tired, Shaparenko began to complain about the damage. We launched players who could keep up that pace. Moraes came out, helped a lot, grabbed the balls. Today was a team game.

– Why did Zinchenko come out today with the captain’s armband? Have you coped with the task?

– I want to congratulate Alexander – his first game as captain! He coped with the task, like all the boys.

– Are you satisfied with the actions of your three centrals?

– In the first 30 minutes we had some problems. We have made some position adjustments, especially with regards to ball control. It is very difficult to implement a new system without training. We only had one lesson. We have worked a lot with videos to give players as much information as possible. I think the players did everything very well.

– How important was the defeat in the Nations League for the 2020/2021 season? Did they help prepare for today’s game?

– Of course, last year’s friendlies and the League of Nations provided us with information. We use a lot of interpreters, involved young footballers. I am never afraid of taking risks, of taking responsibility, because this is the only way to see the players. We have collected enough information. We search all the time because we need good and quality footballers.

– Yarmolenko and Tsygankov could not help the Ukrainian team. Is that why you chose this tactical scheme?

– No, we made this decision before the game. We needed to block the space in the back. If we left the talented French players face to face, we would have a lot of problems. This was the only way to balance the alignment, to compact the space between the lines. One always tight and the other covered. This was our game plan. Of course, Yarmolenko and Tsygankov give us many more options. We could make substitutions at the end of the game, as they are very skilled players. But we have the players that we have right now.

– How would you comment on the choice of Buschan for the goalkeeper position?

– We have enough good goalkeepers. Any of them could play. Buschan has a little more experience. He conceded seven goals here, and from a psychological point of view, he could have had a chance. I saw that Georgy was better prepared for this game. Still, the Dynamo have a psychological advantage in the context of Ukrainian league matches.

– Who first came up with that game plan?

– If we make a decision, we always do it together. This is a joint work of the coaching staff.

– It seemed that in the counterattacks, the Ukrainian team did not take the matter to its logical conclusion.

– I think that continuation of the counterattacks that we had are more connected with some kind of technical defect. Having worked so hard on defense, he is not fresh enough in his decisions during counterattacks. There were some pretty good sequels. Somewhere the boys were tired, they made wrong decisions. This is normal. We had a lot of chances, but technical mistakes were made. You always lose a lot of energy when you run a long distance. The French team sent many players to attack, it opened space for us …