Mladen Bartulovich: "It was the toughest match in my coaching career"

After defeating "Zorya," the head coach of FC "Kharkiv" Mladen Bartulovich told UPL TV how the team coped with numerous interruptions due to air alarms and ended the two-day confrontation with three points:

— Probably, let's try to talk about football, but this is a very specific, very special match. How did you experience it?

— Yes, probably, this is my toughest match as a coach. Very emotional and stressful because you have to think about football, but you think more about alarms, "shahids," and our enemy. Very difficult. I want to thank the guys for maintaining concentration and focus in such a difficult situation. After each break, they went out on the field and gave themselves to the game. They deserved to win. They showed good football in this game. I am confident that this victory will give us confidence.

— This victory comes after the game with "Shakhtar" in the previous round. I suppose you had a lot of positives, but this positivity was not reflected in points. Personally, what does today's game and this result mean to you?

— I told the guys that this is a very important match. I think such matches are key because they show where we are heading. There was a great responsibility in this match. The guys understood this situation well and prepared for a very tough opponent. "Zorya" is a very good team, and they showed it in the last match against "Polissya." It was very difficult for us today, and yesterday was even harder. The most important thing for us is that we won and earned three points.

— Zabergdji's exit, a double after he came on the field. What can you say about his personal performance? But is this the match where someone needs to be singled out personally?

— I would like to highlight the whole team because everyone worked for the result and played well. Batoni worked very well in the last two weeks and deserved to come on the field. He came out and justified it. He is a good guy and should continue to work like this.

— Let's talk about something beyond football. It's interesting to understand what happens in the team's locker room when it sits for an hour, then another hour, warms up, another alarm. What do you do? Do the players eat something? How does it happen at that moment?

— It's very difficult. It's such an experience... I think even Mourinho or any other coach didn't have such an experience. Also didn't know what the recipe could be here. It's very difficult to emotionally keep the guys. Especially after the second break. After the break, they went out, played for five minutes - and another break. Went into the locker room, talked, but there were no emotions anymore. Probably, it's good that we didn't finish yesterday because emotionally everyone was already empty. But thanks for our teamwork and for what happened yesterday.