'The result speaks for itself'
Friday, April 25, 2008
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The result rather than the performance pleased MFK Viz-Sinara Ekaterinburg coach Sergei Skorovich after his team defeated Kairat Almaty 4-1 to reach the final.
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Alesio, Kairat coach
It was quite an evenly-matched game. We failed to keep up the focus we had in the first half. As a result we conceded goals from dead balls and after that we stopped playing. We knew we had high-class opponents against us and that we could not relax, but it still happened. The penalty was the turning point in the match. I did not have any feeling we would win this after the first half because that was only a half of the match. You cannot be sure in such things before the final whistle. Marcinho kept goal well and I cannot reproach him. However he should take the blame for the third goal as you cannot afford to play like this in these games. He should have cleared that ball into the stands. But I will not blame him as I never do that with any individual player. It was the whole team's error when we relaxed in the second half and lost concentration.
Sergei Skorovich, Ekaterinburg coach
The most important thing is that we managed to get the result. It was a difficult match for us. Not the most beautiful performance from our side. But the result speaks for itself so I am happy. It would be much more painful to play well and lose in the end. We managed to convert the few chances the other side allowed us. This is a historic moment and I congratulate the players and the fans. The first thing I did [in the dressing room during the break] was to restore players' mental condition. In the first half the team did not create well and, I would dare say, did not play at all. That is because almost half of our squad had never played in this sort of competition before so they needed some time to settle. In the second half we gave away the ball on purpose because we knew we are rather good on the break and we have some pacy players as we were very poor in positional play. We hoped spaces would appear in their defence. [Key player] Damir Khamadiev was injured [in the league match against MFK CSKA Moskva last weekend]. He has ruptured a thigh muscle and is out for a long time. We missed him a lot tonight.