Match № 35

The match № 35, match for the 11th place, ninth tournament day

FINLAND – UKRAINE 0:3 (0:1)

January 11th, 2014, St. Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 300 spectators

Referees: Ivan Sidenkov, Ilya Dorogostayskiy, Denis Savin

Finland: Aalto, Antikainen (Peiponen, 46), Lehtinen, Karlsson, Jouini (Rama, 76; Salmela, 85), Jarvinen, Nurmela, Lassas (c), Blomqvist (Jensen, 46), Ojanpera (Pietola, 63), Jaaskelainen (Savolainen, 46)

Head coach: Jarkko Wiss

Ukraine: Yefanov, Kuksenko (Shtanenko, 81), Paliukh, Dushyn (Nechai, 46), Kvych, Byesyedin, Zotko ( Klots, 50), Luchkevych (Lobay, 86), Luk'yanchuk (k), Kaplienko, Klak (Stefurak, 46)

Head coach: Aleksandr Golovko

Goals: Zotko (43), Byesedin (58, 79)

Yellow cards: Lassas (70), Nurmela (87)

Best players: Jere Aalto, Valeriy Luchkevych

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After match comments

Head coach of the team Finland Jarkko Wiss:

– It's a very tough tournament with high loads. I worried about the physical condition of my players, if there will be enough forces for 5 games in 8 days. What for today's game , still in the first half we could see that we were far behind team Ukraine. I'm really down with the loss, for my players showed quite a good spirit.

– In the previous matches Richard Jensen was one of your best players, but today he came on the pitch only in the second half. Why?

– He had winter holidays. Why do I need to put him at risk? Why should I be killing my player if there are other players who have come on the tournament? The tournament allowed me to rotate the lineup.

– Can you draw preliminary conclusions?

– The tournament is very good for our team. I like everything. Our aim is to come here next year, for I'm training the youth team of 1997 d.o.b. By the way I go with them for the tournament in Minsk in three days, so our schedule is quite tough.

Head coach of the team Ukraine Aleksandr Golovko:

– It is good that we have won! I'm satisfied with the result. But I'm upset because of the injury of our central defender. I was deciding before the match should I let him play or not, and I risked. As you have seen, we got the result, but the price was very high! I don't know how long it will take him to recover, but the injury is hard.

– How do you think, what was the reason of so many injuries in your team and in the others?

– The schedule is 5 matches in a week. We gathered on 26th of December to prepare to this tournament. We took players from their homes and celebrated the New Year in a training camp, psychologically it is quite difficult.

– Are you satisfied with your team in general?

– For sure. I've already told that we came here not for the victory but for the selection. We have the aims to improve the individual skills of players and form the team play. I think we made a good progress in it. We also discovered several players, for example, Artyom Byesyedin, who managed to be the leader of the squad. We didn't take with us two leaders, Bondaruk and Rendarenko. Last tournament these guys have scored 30 (!) goals. There are also good skilled players who stayed at home. But now we have a clear image of players from this staff and this is the reason why I'm satisfied with our result.