Yevhen Nazarov: "It's not easy to play such matches"

Comment from the head coach of the youth team "Metalist 1925" Yevhen Nazarov after the victory over "Poltava" in a match that lasted for two days:

— It's not easy to play such matches. Everyone understands why - because of the air alarm. We prepared for the game, we had a certain plan. And practically throughout the first half, we stuck to it, acted quite well. We managed to score two good goals, there were other moments.

When we led 2:0 and went to the second half, it was clear that the opponent had nothing to lose anymore. They started to act more aggressively - not to say adventurously, but already without much attention to defense. They just tried to press, so the game in the second half was a bit crushed. When the alarm sounded, until 19:00 we still tried to keep the team in shape - hoped that we could finish the game. We wanted to finish the match yesterday because several of our guys had to go to the first team, be on the roster. We wanted them to feel the atmosphere of the game, the atmosphere of the Premier League. For them, this is an important step forward. But, unfortunately, it didn't work out.

Today we tuned the players to the fact that they need to go out and score more. We didn't just want to keep the score or defend. It seemed that the opponent was also charged for these thirty minutes - they wanted to equalize the game. But, I think, we coped. We did what we planned: we won the duels, attacked, didn't forget about defense. We succeeded.

— Was it difficult to adjust the team for the continuation of the game?

— Yes, it was difficult. The game was in the morning - at 10:00. We insisted on holding it as early as possible so that our players could still get into the first team roster. But this is our job - to tune the players. They understood that yesterday was a tough stretch, and today they needed to go out and not give up in either the fight or the desire. Yesterday one of our players - Danylo Pilhanchuk - got a minor injury. While he was emotional, he didn't feel any pain. And in the morning he woke up and said, "I can't straighten my leg, it hurts." So we had to make a substitution. But everyone came out charged, understood that they needed to go through these thirty minutes properly.