Mladen Bartulovich: "Very serious about the opponent"

The head coach of "Kharkiv" Mladen Bartulovich summed up the crushing victory over "Kalynivka" in the 1/32 finals of the Ukrainian Cup:

— Mladen, congratulations on the victory! You were just one goal short of scoring ten. After all, last week the team celebrated its anniversary - ten years.

— Thank you for the congratulations. We were very serious about preparing for the opponent because such a match is not ordinary compared to the championship matches. I asked the guys to take this match very seriously. And they did. Thank them for their attitude. Tomorrow we have a friendly match planned, and everyone will get playing time. We are preparing for it.

— You scored only at the end of the first half. Was there some nervousness?

— There was nervousness because we couldn't score. We had matches last year where we created a lot but didn't score. At the same time, I was confident that we would win this match because I saw the players' mindset. I always tell them that it doesn't matter who we play against because we are professionals and should be prepared for any opponent. Today they did it. This is the only way they will grow as footballers because we have many young guys, and it is very important to have this mindset for every match.

— Mladen, I think today you surprised the fans a bit with the starting lineup. It was almost the same as against "Shakhtar," with just one substitution.

— As I mentioned, we have another match tomorrow, and I want all the guys to get playing time. Today, a group of players who played against "Shakhtar" was on the field. And tomorrow, the guys who played less today will play, spending 90 minutes on the field. I want to balance the workload.

— Today, Smolyakov, Parako, and Profini scored their debut goals. I think this should relieve the players of some pressure associated with their first official goal.

— Yes. We really wanted to score from the chances we create and feel confident that we can score. We created a lot of chances in the matches against "Shakhtar," "Veres," and the same "Polissya." We can't always convert these chances into goals, but we really wanted to feel confident. I hope that in the future, we will continue to create opportunities and score more.