Oleksandr Petrakov: “With Italy we are still at different poles”

27.10.2018 16:46

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

After returning from Italy, where the youngest youth team of Ukraine U-16 (players not older than 2003) lost in two friendly matches to the local team (1:4, 0:3), the head coach of blue and yellow Alexander Petrakov summed up the visit.

- Oleksandr Vasyliovych, was Italy so strong, didn't the national team of Ukraine, which lost twice, look the best?

- With the Italians, we are at different poles. It seemed that we played against players much older than us, they looked so textured. The opponent beat us in all articles. This Italian national team has been playing together for two years, and by the way, local specialists and coaches predict a great future for this team.

- Is everything so sad for us?

- I can't blame my players for anything, they showed everything they are capable of at the moment, and the fault of everything is the level of our youth league, in which measured, monotonous football, the opponent calmly allows the defensive players to play the ball ... And here we had to act under pressure all the time, our performers were not ready for that. Due to the pressure of the Italians, our team could not tie three passes.

- In the first match, the referee awarded three penalties to the national team of Ukraine ...

- After watching the video, I can say that all 11-meters were assigned fairly.

- But, probably, it is not necessary to sprinkle a head with ashes?

- And nobody does it. We will work. These games, I hope, will teach the boys a lot. We should not forget that we are getting acquainted with this team so far, and before the matches with the Italians we had, in fact, only one full-fledged training.

We will continue to look for promising football players and, again, hope that these guys will only add.