Match № 8

The match № 8, group stage, second tournament day

ST. PETERSBURG – BELARUS 3:2 (3:1)

January 6th, 2013, Saint-Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 2000 spectators

Referees: Anton Batalov, Dmitry Semyonov, Rustam Mukhtarov

St. Petersburg: Mzhelsky, Davidenko, Karpov, Kovalenko, Alfyorov, Troyanov, Dilanyan, Zakarlyuka (c) (Kompaneets, 88), Makarov (Solovyev, 67), Yesin (Anuchin, 81), Yegorov (Simonyan, 82)

Head coach: Vladimir Kazachyonok

Belarus: Kharitonovich, Ignatenko, Nazarenko, Bondarenko, Gorbachik (Kaborda, 74), Korzun (c) (Kucherov, 59), Yarotsky (Morozov, 83), Patsko, Sidorenko (Yanchenko, 74), Kaplenko (Azerskiy, 46), Rassadkin (Belevich, 88)

Head coach: Andrey Pyshnik

Goals: Sidorenko (21), Zakarlyuka (22), Yegorov (35), Makarov (45), Kucherov (90)

Yellow cards: Makarov (26), Sidorenko (26), Patsko (45), Azersky (61), Yarotsky (76)

Best players: Frederik Spryut, Petagna Andrea

After match comments

Coach of the team St. Petersburg Anver Koneyev:

– We were nervous before the match. It was the first time that the guys played with such a number of supporters – their supporters, - and they could stagger. But everybody went to the pitch in a good mood, and we've done it. Weariness appeared in the end. 3 players of line-up didn't come, so we couldn't show our best today.

All our goals were the result of our played schemes, they didn't appear from nothing and each of them was deserved. When Alexey Yegorov was coming back after being rendered medical aid, I asked him to restrain his emotions not to answer back, not to fall across a yellow card. But if he will convert his emotions in such a way into goals - I don't mind.

The second goal we let in I consider entirely my fault. Coaches had to change something, to concentrate the players' attention at the end of the match, and we haven't done it.

Our group is a group of death, containing the strongest teams at the tournament, so the struggle will be hard.

Head coach of the team Belarus Andrey Pyshnik:

– We couldn't succeed in the first half of the match because it took time for us to get use to the pitch, to the tribunes. But in the second half we played better. However, as it usually happens in our football, we couldn't score – had all chances if not for victory but at least for the draw. Unfortunately we didn't have enough skills.

I became the head coach of the team a few months ago and now we look for the best line-up. Still we need to work hard to correct our mistakes because in future we will play with strong opponents. We are not going to give up even before start, we'll try to find our own answer to each opponent. And conclusions will be made later, by the end of the tournament.