Chief coach of the Ukrainian football combined team is confident that, in the remaining matches of the Euro 2008 qualifying round, his players will win over Lithuania and France. “You may not even ask me – the team will fight until the last second of the elimination game”, said Oleh Blokhin, who celebrated recently his 55th anniversary, to “Komanda” newspaper. The coach refused to forecast who will be eliminated from our group, though he noted that “we, of course, will try to make the French third”. Blokhin confessed that, for him, the last game in this group tournament will be a matter of principle.
Speaking about the painful topic of the current condition of Kyiv “Dynamo”, O.Blokhin noted that he was ashamed for the team’s game, but he refused to discuss his colleagues.
“It’s shameful. But, I answer you as a former Dynamo player, and not as a coach of the combined team. I do not know all the details, why this situation takes place, but I have always said that this brand must not drop lower a certain level. Those, who play for the team now, must understand that they plan not in a mere professional club, but in Kyiv “Dynamo”, and will always leave in its history”, he said.
“Being a coach, a professional, I would not like to discuss the actions of my counterpart. It would be incorrect. But, of course, I have my own opinion”, he said.
Dynamo Kiev have named their third head coach this season, less than three days before a critical Champions League match against Manchester United.Management at the Ukrainian side appointed assistant coach Oleg Luzhny to the top job late Sunday evening, after his predecessor Josef Szabo bowed out citing heart problems, according to the Nation Sports. Szabo had taken over Dynamo in September, in the midst of the side`s worst season start in a decade.
Historically Ukraine`s strongest football team and during the 1970s and 80s one of the most feared sides in Europe, Dynamo have lost all three of their Group F games so far, including a 4-2 defeat to United in Kiev last month.
