Volodymyr Salyuk: "Today we went out fully charged to 100%"

The defender of "Metalist 1925" Volodymyr Salyuk gave a post-match comment on UPL TV after the victory in the extra-time match against "Veres":

— Congratulations on the victory, and I know it was very important for your team to earn your three points on the field of play?

— Good afternoon, thank you for the question. Yes, this game was very important for us. Four months ago, we did not finish the match. In my opinion, the football club "Veres", to put it mildly, behaved quite inappropriately when the lights went out in Zhytomyr. There were applause, all other things were there after the game. So, yes, on the eve of the game, we even talked to our director about this game, so today we came out fully charged at 100 percent.

— Compared to December 7, was it easier to come out today due to this motivation, due to this principled approach?

— Coming out? I don't know. By the way, we understood that these 25 minutes would be very important. It was very important to score in these 25 minutes because we watched and know that "Veres" is a very disciplined team especially in defense. And if we didn't score in the first 25 minutes, then it would have been very difficult to play against this team, which defends very well. So I believe that the most important goal today was the first goal by Peter Itodo.

— The secret of such success is that you managed to score your goal in the first minutes. And this became a cause-and-effect relationship for the 4-0 score?

— One hundred percent. Because in the second half, "Veres" started to play more openly, we had zones where we could run and play sharply on counterattacks.

— The score is eloquent, but overall, did "Veres" manage to create any problems for "Metalist 1925"?

— Yes, they did. The last minutes of the first half were very difficult when "Veres" attacked, there was such pressure in the last 3-4 minutes. I can't say it was easy, it was quite difficult.

— "Metalist 1925" does not concede in the second half of the season at all, if we don't talk about penalties in the game against "Shakhtar". What is the key to such successful defense now? What is the foundation of such reliability?

— Probably, firstly, in defense - it's discipline. Secondly, I believe that we have a very good bench. Players who don't start from the first minutes can come on and strengthen. Or if someone drops out, due to injury or accumulation of yellow cards, we have the same substitution. A player comes on who plays just as well in that position. An equal substitution for each position is very important, I think.