Mladen Bartulovich: "Could have scored a second goal and won this match"

Main coach of "Metalist 1925" Mladen Bartulovich answered the journalist's question on UPL TV after a draw with "Kudrivka" in the 9th round of UPL:

— As expected, it was a very tough match for you today against "Kudrivka," but your team had enough chances. What about converting those chances?

— Yes, we are a bit disappointed. It was a bitter loss of points today. I believe we could have won today because we had enough chances, but the ball just didn't want to go into the net. I think the match was interesting, "Kudrivka" also played well at times. We knew they would have counterattacks. They scored that goal, you could say, from the first shot and the game changed a bit. But we tried to push, scored the first goal, could have scored the second goal and won this match. But it ended in a draw, and we accept this result.

— One could say that the opponent skillfully slowed down the pace. Especially in the second half, many players were lying down and complaining about the referees. As soon as your guys gained momentum, after 30-40 seconds everything started over?

— Yes, we wanted to increase the tempo, but this is football, it's their tactic that worked today. What can we do about it? There are referees who can regulate this a bit. But this is the tactic "Kudrivka" chose today. They earned one point today, so I think they are satisfied.

— You have repeatedly emphasized that the striker must score. Today he scored and did a huge amount of work. Somewhere, maybe Mba was missed. The Nigerian was absent today, what about him?

— Yes, he has an injury, he missed this match. Yes, of course, in such matches, you want to add fresh players up front and press the opponent. Itodo played well today. He did a lot of work, as you said, a lot of useful work for the team in pressing and with the ball as well.

— How did your midfielders hold up for 90 minutes, because both Kalyuzhny and Krupsky did a huge amount of work today?

— I think everything was fine because they had enough time to recover. You could say there was a week. There were five days, so they had enough and they worked to the maximum, as always.