Match № 39

The match № 39, match for the 3rd place, tenth tournament day

TURKEY – SLOVAKIA 1:1 (1:0), pen. 8:9

January 12th, 2014, St. Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 4000 spectators

Referees: Oleg Sokolov, Aleksey Manin, Pavel Novikov

Turkey: Koyuncu, Zengin, Unver (Ozer, 46), Ersoy, Tuzcu, Aydin (c) (Erdogan, 78), Vatansever, Kilic (Demir, 80), Сinar, Yaman (Altintas, 46), Sucsuz (Okutan, 73)

Head coach: Mehmet Hacioglu

Slovakia: Bajza, Vavro, Vodezcky, Kacher, Gric, Vestenicky (Slaninka, 75), Vlchek (Rajnik, 57), Siplak, Kupec, Haraslin(c), Chvatal

Head coach: Milan Malatinsky

Goals: Cinar (21), Haraslin (77, pen.)

Yellow cards: Siplak (25), Kupec (38), Yaman (43), Ersoy (45), Tuzcu (64)

Red card: Ersoy(76, 2nd yellow card)

Best players: Orkan Cinar, Jakub Gric

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After match comments

Head coach of the team Turkey Mehmet Hacioglu:

– I want to thank our opponents for the nice game. I congratulate Slovakian team with the deserved victory and bronze medals. It was the match of two worth each other teams.

– It was hard to find you on the coach bench today. What had happened?

– It is the educational tournament not only for referees and players, but also for coaches. That is why I let one of my assistants direct the game, and in the second half another one did all my work.

– Who was better of them?

– Both worked very well.

– Comparing with previous match you didn't put in the lineup several players who had showed good performance before –

– There are no injuries and huge tiredness. I've already underlined, that the main our aim on this tournament is to look through all the players and give them equal chances to show their best. When should I check them? In the second half those whom you are talking about came to the game with substitutions.

Head coach of the team Slovakia Milan Malatinsky:

– Today we have a very high skilled team against us. It was an equal and beautiful match. We are happy with the victory and the third place, but we understand at the same time, that the victory in penalty shootout is a luck or lottery. I want to thank the organizers. I hope you will invite us next year.

– In the match against Iran you played from defense and won 2:1. Today you showed offensive football but you were losing during most time of the match. Was it an obvious risk or your experiment?

– It wasn't an experiment. We tried different playing schemes on this tournament, as defensive, so the offensive and positional. During preparation to every game we analyze out opponents and choose tactics individually for every match.

– There was an impression in the first half that your players were really tired, but in the second half you managed to level the game as there wasn't any tiredness. Where did you find strengths?

– After analyzing our matches we came to the conclusion that there was no tiredness! The problem is in the heads, in intelligence of the game. We made some implications and the result of it can be already seen.