Fans who were at the Lutsk "Avangard" stadium this evening witnessed a true football thriller. Admittedly, the ending of this very thriller became an unpleasant surprise for the supporters of "Volyn".
Although the head coach of our team, Vitaliy Kvartsyany, had serious problems with the lineup - due to various circumstances, Djudović, Mor, and Mitić were unable to take the field - however, the start of the match itself unfolded in such a way that hopes for a positive result for the Lutsk side were not unfounded. "Volyn," as befits one of the leaders of the Ukrainian championship, began the game with attacks. In the 7th minute, Sachko set up Krunić in a shooting position. But before Bronislav could reach the ball, Hlushchenko appeared in front of him and blocked the shooting angle. However, Krunić still shot straight at the goalkeeper. The next minute, "Volyn" already took the lead. Popov tripped Tryshovych in his own penalty area, and the chief referee of the match, Vitaliy Hodulyan, without hesitation pointed to the 11-meter mark. Since "Volyn's" regular penalty taker Volodymyr Hashchyn was not on the field, the victim himself approached the ball. Hlushchenko guessed the direction of Tryshovych's shot but could not reach the ball. The leather ball hit the goalpost, then bounced off the back of the guests' goalkeeper, and only after that flew into the "Metalurh" goal. After this, the Zaporizhzhia side essentially staged a hunt for Aleksandar Tryshovych. Moreover, they did it in the literal sense of the word. In the 16th minute, Kryvyentsov at high speed crashed into the legs of our midfielder from behind. Vitaliy Hodulyan "rated" this foul as a red card. "Volyn" found itself with a numerical advantage, but the game on the field continued to be even. Against the backdrop of both teams, Tryshovych stood out. During the team's reorganization for another attack, he unexpectedly found himself in the position of a central defender and simply gifted the ball to Karakevych. The latter exchanged passes with Lyubarskyi and was already going one-on-one with Humenyuk. But from behind, the same Tryshovych quietly crept up and corrected his own mistake, knocking the ball off the feet of the "Metalurh" forward for a corner. In the 29th minute, Tryshovych again found himself on his usual left flank of the attack, dribbled past several "Metalurh" players, and was about to deliver a cross, but again received a blow to the legs from behind. His offender Lyubarskyi received a "yellow card" for this. When the last minute of the first half was already running out, Aleksandar Tryshovych "contributed" to his team's second goal. Our midfielder was brought down near his own penalty area by Vyshnyak (who also received a yellow card from the referee). The free kick was taken, again, by Tryshovych. Aleksandar dared a direct shot from a tight angle, which would not have posed particular difficulties for Hlushchenko. The guests' goalkeeper was already about to collect the ball, but for a moment Hashchyn beat him to it. Volodymyr touched the ball with the tip of his boot, and that was enough for it to change its flight trajectory and end up in the "Metalurh" goal for the second time. Again, it is worth noting that the guests, even a man down, looked quite solid, compensating for the absence of one field player with considerable effort and total pressing. So at halftime, obviously, Vitaliy Kvartsyany had a serious talk with his charges, but, as it turned out, the guests' coach Valeriy Yaremchenko was more convincing. After the break, his team played with more power. A successful substitution at the start of the second half also contributed to this. Silyuk appeared on the field in place of the generally inconspicuous Hodin. And Vitaliy Kvartsyany, in turn, made a forced substitution at halftime. Volodymyr Kovalyuk, who came out to play, as they say, on injections, could not continue the match. So, after the break, the guests, who were a man down, laid siege to "Volyn's" goal. Roman Karakevych twice fired at our team's goal, and by the way, last summer Vitaliy Kvartsyany would not have minded seeing him on his team as well. However, the guests' talented forward was frankly unlucky. In the 54th minute, he finally brought success to his team. Another breakthrough by Roman was stopped by Harrison Omoko with a foul. Since this happened in our team's penalty area, the chief referee of the match awarded a penalty. It was flawlessly converted by Armen Akopyan, sending the ball and the goalkeeper to different corners of the goal. Only after conceding did the Lutsk side perk up and begin to look more like themselves. Our footballers tried at any cost to score a third goal to secure the winning result. Admittedly, the guests played very powerfully in the center of the field. Therefore, "Volyn's" attacks often stalled already there. Bronislav Krunić was closest to success. He shot from a comfortable position, but Hlushchenko once again saved his team by turning the ball out for a corner. Then it was time for a small diversion. The guests earned the right to a free kick in the center in front of our team's goal, but executed it unsuccessfully. At that same moment, a dog appeared on the field. While the Metalurh players were preparing the free kick, the uninvited guest leisurely walked over to the guests' half of the field and settled down on the grass. Chidi tried somehow to "negotiate" with the animal. Michael tried to chase the animal off the field, but it was not about to leave. Then Vyshnyak simply carried the animal off the field in his arms and handed it to the ball boys. Subsequently, the little dog watched the continuation of the game from outside the football pitch.
The game resumed. "Volyn" continued to attack, and the guests continued to count on counterattacks. One of them in the 83rd minute led to another free kick being awarded in the direction of the Lutsk goal. Although it was 25-30 meters to the goal, Silyuk dared to shoot. And he was not mistaken - the ball did end up in "Volyn's" goal. Oleksandr Humenyuk, obviously, did not see the moment of the shot, so he could not help his team in any way. In the time remaining until the end of the game, our team went on an assault on the opponent's goal. The guests defended selflessly. In one episode, Vyshnyak committed a justified foul, for which he received a second yellow card and left the field. "Volyn" could have saved the game already in stoppage time. Cornel Buta burst into the guests' penalty area down the right flank and delivered a cross along the goal line. Michael Chidi was supposed to meet this pass, but he missed the ball and could not hit the practically empty goal.
The despair of the fans in the stands knew no bounds. However, it is worth noting that football is interesting precisely for its unpredictability. So behind victories there are necessarily some failures, which must be quickly forgotten and gotten over. It is a pity that there are still fans in the stands of our stadium who start shouting "shame" when the team is not doing well. But it is precisely the support of the fans in a difficult moment that any team needs, because when a team plays confidently, it plays confidently even without support.
Shots: 9 - 9 On target: 4 - 4 Corners: 8 - 3 Dangerous moments: 6 - 4
Valeriy Yaremchenko: - I believe that Kryvyentsov's sending-off was unjustified. The foul did not warrant a red card. Other than that, I can say that there were two interesting teams on the field, there was a real struggle.
Vitaliy Kvartsyany: - We had problems today. Due to an accumulation of cards, Djudović missed the game, Mor could not take the field. And at halftime it turned out that Kovalyuk could not continue the game. There were problems in attack as well. Mitić could not recover in time for the game against "Metalurh." In addition to the lineup troubles, we also had certain organizational problems.
I asked the players to play very carefully against the opponent. But look at the goals we conceded. In the first episode, Omoko "earned" a penalty out of nowhere. He stuck his leg in front of the "Metalurh" forward for some reason. And in the second case, something incredible happened. Krunić for some reason went back into defense and "earned" that fatal free kick. Today we lost two very important points and moved about 50 percent away from our intended goal - finishing in the top three.
Results of other matches of the 21st round:
Shakhtar 5:2 Obolon Dynamo 1:0 Vorskla Chornomorets 1:0 Metalurh D Tavriya 1:1 Dnipro Illichivets 1:0 Borysfen Kryvbas 3:1 Metalist Zakarpattia 2:0 Arsenal
Serhiy KRAYVANOVYCH