Mladen Bartulovich: "Won 2:0, but could have scored more"

The head coach of "Kharkiv" Mladen Bartulovich summed up the victory over "Prykarpattya" in the 1/16 finals of the Ukrainian Cup, recalled his matches in Ivano-Frankivsk, and talked about the difficulty of cup matches:

— Mladen, congratulations on the victory. We continue our cup journey. How challenging was today's match?

— First of all, I should probably mention the field because it slightly hindered the game. Cup matches are always challenging. The most important thing is that we won. The guys understood what the match would be like, we reached out to them. They came out and showed good football, even on such a field. We won 2-0, but could have scored more. It's always very difficult to play here. I played here once against "Prykarpattya". I repeat: the most important thing for us is the victory. We are preparing for a very important match for us this Saturday.

— Do you remember your match? Maybe you scored here?

— Yes, I scored, but it was a long time ago.

— It's always difficult to play against teams from the first, second division, and lower in terms of class because they defend with the whole team. Today, in the first half, it was like that.

— Yes, they were very well organized, worked aggressively. Of course, it was a tough match, but that's usually how it is in the Cup, that's the path here. We move on.

— In this context, the goal before the break was important. It seems to me that it somehow relieved the pressure that could have been there.

— Yes, of course. There were still chances to score before the break. Scoring that goal was very important. And scoring the second right after the break somewhat calmed "Prykarpattya" down. Then we created a lot of chances, we needed to score more.

— How is Shabanov doing? Have you found out yet?

— Regarding Shabanov - we'll see what's up with his injury. It's unknown at the moment.