Match № 13

The match № 13, group stage, fourth tournament day

KAZAKHSTAN – FINLAND 0:1 (0:1)

January 8th, 2013, Saint-Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 300 spectators

Referees: Maxim Vasilchenko, Ivan Kichimasov, Dmitry Semyonov

Kazakhstan: Golubnichii, Dairov, Ismailov, Kuzmenko, Nurali (, 82), Gunusov (Taipov, 46), Saparov (c), Gagippar (Sovetov, 70; Balgabaev, 79), Sahibov (Vomenko, 54; Kidirali, 90), Sulei, Sagindik (Morozov, 46)

Head coach: Mihail Soloviev

Finland: Koski, Tenho, Starck, Kvist, Ojala(c) (Saarinen, 66), Voutilainen, Tamminen (Jokinen, 55), Pyysalo, Viitikko, Hambo (Sjöroos, 82), Puro (Skrabb, 73)

Head coach: Kimmo Lipponen

Goals: Tamminen (37)

Yellow cards: Saparov (36), Sulei (84), Skrabb (88)

Best players: Alisher Sulei, Jerry Voutilainen

After match comments

Head coach of the team Kazakhstan Mihail Soloviev:

– Comments will be short. We played bad. We initiated struggle, we tried to go forward, but each time we had to overcome ourselves. We hold the ball too long, we failed to play one-touch or double pass. We still also fail to arrange the defence at free kicks. We're in the beginning of a long way, and there's much to be done.

Amongst the key moments there is the failure of Finnish defense which we were not able to take advantage of, and also the disallowed goal. After the first match the referees acknowledged that the penalty kick to our side was appointed wrong. This time I'm sure there was no offside and the goal should have been counted. I have serious questions to the referees. There's no possibility to fight. I realise there are ruffles and roughness, this is objective. But now we're starting to play a mini football.

We didn't improve the game by the substitutions. The players just couldn't realise what I want them to do, so I had to make two reversed substitutions. We have many new players and I just need to look them through.

Head coach of the team Finland Kimmo Lipponen:

– The game was good, our sportsmen controlled the game. However, we had to score at least two more goals before the break and then we could relax a bit. But we didn't manage to do this and as the result at the end everybody was very nervous. We had many troubles because of the opponent's player № 10.

In the second half of the match one of our players got slightly injured and I had to substitute him. It's necessary to say that №7 is one of our key players so I wanted to keep him save for the coming games. Because it's impossible to play 5 matches on end as good as it should be, I gave him a rest.

I'm glad that we could overcome our fault in the defense, when Kazakhstan team had all the chances to score. But I don't think that was the fault of the defense line. Our center midfielders were very slow in this match and they gave enough space for the opponent's team. The menace for our gate had started from center of the field.