Last Wednesday we defeated Valletta FC 3-1 at the Groupama Arena, today in the second leg we could only achieve a draw, but it was enough. We got into the third round of the Champions League Qualifiers with an aggregate result of 4-2. Our next opponent is the Croatian Dinamo Zagreb. The first leg of the third round will be played in Zagreb.

Serhiy Rebrov, our head coach evaluated after the game.

„We started the game well, with lots of opportunities, if we could have scored from one of those opportunities, this game would have been different, but unfortunately we couldn’t. Then we, unfortunately, got a goal. Our opponent did everything to get back into the fight, but I think we deserved to get into the next round.“ Said Serhiy Rebrov, head coach of FTC.

Rebrov revealed that the first change (Danylo Ihnatenko came off and Sigér Dávid came on the pitch in the 32nd minute) was tactical.

„There was no injury. Sometimes a player can lose confidence, it happens. Moreover, Danylo was shown a yellow card, I saw that he didn’t want to tackle, as he was scared of being sent off the pitch. This happens, that’s why we have amazing players on the bench. Sigi came and his performance was spectacular.“

Our head coach mentioned that he was tense, his players weren’t playing up to their full potential, but in the break, they’ve sorted things out. He also talked about the upcoming matches against Dinamo Zagreb.

„I’m tense during every game, today I didn’t stress about the score, but because I knew my players could do better. We sorted things out in the break and had several opportunities in the second half, we even scored. We are not playing DVSC this weekend, so the next opponent is Dinamo. Tomorrow the players will have a free day and then we’ll start getting ready for the next round. I did watch the first game of Zagreb, but I didn’t say a word to the players about it. I told them numerous times that this is the Champions League, it’s a different level, I’m happy that they took this task seriously. We didn’t win tonight, but what matters is that we are in the third round.“