Mikhail Kobyakov: “Our team had quite a noticeable advantage”

— How would you rate the game with Strogino? Was everyone happy?

— Not everyone is happy, but this is only the first match of the championship. I think the girls were nervous, which led to more mistakes than we expected. However, we had a fairly significant advantage during the first half, in which we scored two goals and missed several good chances.

At the beginning of the second half, not everything went smoothly, the organization of the attack was not going well, we conceded a goal. The goal, by the way, is quite beautiful; home preparation is visible, because Strogino throws outs very far and always creates pressure in standard situations. I would like to mention my opponent in this. We immediately had two substitutions, and the girls successfully entered the game. Polina Kolesnikova passed a wonderful pass to Kristina Yakovenko, who dealt one-on-one with the Strogino goalkeeper. Subsequently, we no longer let the game out of our control and scored another goal.

— What surprised your opponent?

— Of course, the composition of Strogino has changed to a certain extent, but in principle the coaching approach is visible. The only thing that surprised the opponent was their fairly active pressing. In both halves they tried to press high, although this was not the case all the time. At the same time, you need to understand that only one championship match took place, everyone wants to start the season positively, that’s why there was such activity. However, our girls came out of the pressure quite successfully.

— Are you satisfied with how the newcomers played?

— Yes, I would like to note the actions of our newcomers. Tasya Razvorotneva played in the attack group and did a very large amount of work, even if she failed to score. Nastya Gnennaya played in three positions - right and left in defense, as well as in the supporting zone, and looked very good everywhere.

Also, the first match for the youth team was played by Arina Volobueva, who missed the entire last season due to a serious injury. After such a long break, she was probably more nervous than the rest. Of course, there were some unsuccessful actions, but Arina is a very smart player, she pulled herself together and played this match quite confidently.

For complete information about the starting lineups and events of the meeting, see the match center.