“We play for the result with Zorya”

Mariupol head coach Ostap Markevich commented on the victory over Zorya (1: 0) in the Premier League round of 16 match.

“The game was very intense. And, in my opinion, interesting. There were good speeds and interesting tactical aspects of the two teams. Everyone in Ukraine knows that Zorya is a powerful strike team. Therefore, we decided to make a tactical move and play for the result. Also, we must bear in mind that we have a very young team and we are not yet ready to play with an opponent like “number one”. But I am convinced that we will succeed. This is our philosophy and idea: we want to control the ball, cover the opponent on their court.

We are happy with the team! After a difficult game in Alexandria, the team came together and showed a pretty good game today. Young people have great potential.

We thought for a long time and consulted with our coaching staff about Bondarenko: is it worth putting Artyom in the starting lineup, since he played two games with the Ukraine youth team? We took a risk, but … As I said, these are young guys, and they still need to improve both physically and tactically and technically. This is a normal process. Nothing terrible happened, ”Markevich said.