Match № 30

The match № 30, play-off round, eighth tournament day

GREECE – SAINT PETERSBURG 2:1 (1:1)

January 10th, 2014, St. Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 300 spectators

Referees: Artyom Chustyakov, Aleksey Manin, Pavel Novikov

Greece: Iliadis, Toufas, Oikonomou, Gialamidis, Tzanoulinos, Koulouris, Neumann, Piastopoulos (Vasaitis, 76), Deligiannidis (c) (Margaritis, 87), Ktistopoulos (Tsolakidis, 46), Kanavetas (Fasidis, 71)

Head coach: Theodoros Pachatouridis

St. Petersburg: Obukhov (c), Krivulkin, Ivanov (Doroshenko, 66), Ivanidi, Markin (Filatenko, 46), Pankov (Meschaninov, 35), Yuryev (Tankov, 27), Agaragimov, Nazimov, Vinogradov, Kubyshkin

Head coach: Vladimir Kazachenok

Goals: Kubyshkin (15), Koulouris (23), Neumann (79)

Yellow cards: Oikonomou (57), Kubyshkin (76), Agaragimov (85), Filatenko (90), Tzanoulinos (90)

Best players: Panagiotis Deligiannidis, Roman Krivulkin

Photos >>>

After match comments

Head coach of the team Greece Theodoros Pachatouridis:

– We watched matches of the team St. Petersburg, trying to find strong and weak points and build the game using this observation. We think it's a very strong team and they play very well. Yet, we managed to find their weak zones in the defense and used it to score two goals and win.

– Your number 11 enforced the game very much when he came on the pitch. Was it because of his freshness or the tiredness of the rivals? Or both?

– You are right, we made this substitution because our number 19 was tired and we had to enforce the game, so Tsolakidis came for substitution. He works fine with the ball and has quick thinking. Of course there was tiredness of the team St. Petersburg but we lacked the last pass, or, the final kick. We struck the goal too rarely.

– The game was interesting today with its substitutions every of which made the game stronger. You let number 11 and got the advantage. Vladimir Kazachenok made a substitution and it made them stronger. Then again you made a substitution – it was a kind of swaying. Does it mean that you managed to teach the players get along in the course of the tournament? Can they understand each other?

– We came to this tournament with enough staff of players. We tried to organize our playing in such a scheme that every substituted player could only improve the performance and understand each other as the players of lineup. And also we try to use as many players as it possible in every match in order to arrange our team play.

Head coach of the team St. Petersburg Vladimir Kazachenok:

– I want to congratulate my colleague with the deserved victory. As I've said, it's a priceless experience both for us and the guys and we are very grateful for being allowed at this tournament, for we have a possibility to compare our forces with those of the strongest rivals. We couldn't do without mistakes which come from lack of attention, not experience, and from violating the law of the game, of football; from letting a moment pass by, from lack of reliability. You could see that both goals scored for team Greece were the moments that haven't played to the end.

– It's second time that an opponent coach says he watches your playing before the match and looks for variant of gaining the victory. And even wins – both Turkey and Greece today. Do your coaches watch matches of the opponents? And if so, why have the Turks and Greeks found your weak points and you haven't?

– Of course we watch. And if we had scored those two or three goals which we could score in the first half our plot would have worked. And now it is as it is.

– You've made several substitutions still in the first half. Hasn't it played a bad joke with you by leading to lack of fresh forces in the end?

– You've seen that our physical condition left much to be desired, for it's the beginning of the season and not all of the players are completely fit. Add to this several failures of the players' combinations and failure of Nazimov's playing. But how can we have grievance towards him if he has brilliantly played whole three matches before. And now he failed. And besides, one of the substitutions was forced. Yuryev has 'cracked', Bukharov has a fever, as well as Filatenko – so, we have some troubles. But this mustn't affect the game in any way.

– Is Pankov all right?

– I don't know yet, but he had a very painful algesic spasm. It demands more serious examination.

– So what was the reason of the missed balls? Was it the fault of the defense which tried to enforce the attack and misdid its own duty?

– When a goal is scored there's no one player or one line guilty, it's the whole team guilty. Somebody hasn't approached, somebody hasn't passed, hasn't resisted, lost and failed to secure. And then the chain reaction goes to the defense. I say once again, the value of the players depends of their activity and of the fruits of this activity. You must always play your moments to the end. And this must bring results.

– The goalkeeper went to make a free kick in the end. Does he have an experience of such joying on the last minutes and was it a right decision from his side?

– It was his spontaneous decision, but it was right decision. There was no difference if we lost 1:2 or 1:3, and now we had a chance to level the score. All the more, our players are not too high and he helped to level the height difference. I think it made the sense and it's a pity that it hasn't brought no results.