- After the match it was impossible to reach you. Who was the first to congratulate you on the Euro?
- The first called Vitaly Leontyevich Mutko, then the press officer of the RFU Andrei Malosolov. Vasily Utkin called, Dima Fedorov with NTV Plus, friends, relatives, in general, the phone became hot. All these days in England we lived in an information vacuum, were practically cut off from Russia. Therefore, I did not expect so much attention to our success and so many congratulations.
- With Holland it was enough for you to play a draw. Given the installation precisely on this result?
“Exactly what not!” We played this match unconventionally. I am sure that the Dutch were waiting for us to play the end game in order to maintain a goalless draw. But we did it differently. They released two forwards at once - Salugin and Dziuba, more possessed the ball and created moments. The Dutch were shocked by our game, they thought we were “crazy”. Like, the Russians need to lock themselves in defense, and they run forward. I saw the puzzled face of the coach of our rivals, who did not believe what was happening on the field. As a result, by scoring chances, we beat the Dutch with a score of 4: 1. We tried to score and could score, but once we were out of luck - Salugin missed the right moment, and in other cases the judge helped our opponents.
- And how often did the referee whistle in favor of the Dutch?
- The refereeing team behaved very impudently. The referee allowed the Dutch to do anything on the field, and we whistled at every encounter with an opponent. At the end of the match, there was simply an extraordinary case: our player jumped one on one, and the side judge raised the flag. Everyone saw that there was no offside. Probably, someone really did not want the Russian team to go to the European Championship.
- And the judge did not have the opportunity to appoint a penalty in your goal?
“No, we did not give him such pleasure.” The Netherlands had one dangerous episode, when the striker shot at close range, and our goalkeeper Seryozha Borodin caught the ball. In other cases, we defended successfully. If the judge gave a penalty, this could be called lawlessness. This match was attended by people from the UEFA leadership, so the referee did not dare to kill the team with them.
- Holland played according to its traditional 4-3-3 pattern?
- Yes, and we built our tactics based on the capabilities of the Dutch team. Played 4-4-2 without extreme midfielders. In the middle of the field, the midfielders formed a rhombus, the main task of which was to neutralize the three midfielders of the opponent, through whom the Dutch had the whole game, and seize the initiative from the first minutes. As a result, the transfers to the forwards did not work, but we had a good pass game. In general, this Dutch team is very strong, it was a favorite not only of our group, but of the entire championship. For Russia, the Dutch are a historically difficult rival. And against the team using 4-3-3, we played for the first time, so it was especially difficult. In this case, it was necessary to correctly prepare and surprise the opponent. Which we did.
Vadim SINAEV