Black Sea coach Ilian Iliev spoke after the Varna derby from the 9th round of the efbet League against the team of Spartak 1918 Varna, which ended 2:0 for the "sailors", BTA reported.
„First of all, I want to thank the two audiences for making it a real celebration. We hope there is nothing off the field, any excesses. Everyone was rooting for their team. No matter how you look at it, we were the better team. We knew what to do on the field, we won deservedly, so I have no more words.
"Naturally these matches are such that if you win the derby and vice versa – when you lose, the whole year is lost, so congratulations to the footballers – they did everything we wanted. We didn't come in as stressed as a derby would, we scored an early goal and from then on I think we controlled the game. We had, especially in the first half after the goal, moments where we should have controlled the game better, we didn't. So not to say it's our best match, one of the good matches, as we performed well in Razgrad and in other matches at home, so it's important to concentrate for the next match at home with CSKA- Sofia. We had studied the opponent well and knew what we had to do on the pitch. The fact that we did not allow them to succeed is a credit to my players.
CSKA-Sofia is the next opponent for the Black Sea, but the team gradually climbed to the 3rd place. "It has no non-important matches. Three points are today, three points are also in the match with CSKA. Every match is important. Last year we proved that in such matches, in which there is not so much media interest, as is the case today and the other match with CSKA, they decide the draft places. Last year we managed to get them, this year we made one or two mistakes, so we have to correct ourselves. So certainly for the match CSKA – concentration, mobilization, there is no point in talking too much, as today the players did what they had to do without much talk.
Our goal is the same – to be in the top 4 and to fight for Europe, we have not changed it. The Cup of Bulgaria – it's far away. Last year being dropped helped us to come second as we didn't have a lot of variation so…
Now the important thing is the next match with CSKA. We played more or less a perfect game today in general, the way we wanted to play it, so we hope to repeat it on Saturday. CSKA gathered, as you saw, quite good footballers, they don't have much time to work, to impose their style – I'm talking about the coaches, but they certainly have a positive energy that will affect the team and we have to be extremely focused in the game.“
"We had a lot of staffing problems", Spartak 1918 Varna coach Kyriakos Georgiou said after the match.
"The loss was due to the fact that in the first minutes they gave us a penalty, you tell me, I failed to look at it, and it threw us off balance. However, the boys still got up, we had a situation with Akhmed Akhmedov. We tried to get back into the game and we did in the first half. In the second half we couldn't go in the way we wanted to try to equalize. A long ball, our half back couldn't secure the central defender, a cross followed, the far half back dropped Dudu and 2:0. We have already collapsed from there. We tried to get back into the game, we had a situation twice with Romesh Ivey, but we couldn't.
However, the young coach also sees the positive in the game. "But I saw from the boys that everyone wanted to play, everyone had a desire from those who played, and they tried to give their best for Spartak. The last three days of the week we did everything possible to recover the players. We had a lot of personnel problems. It threw us off balance for the game. You saw that there were quite a few changes in the starting line-up. Our medical staff did their best to recover them, we didn't manage to recover them all, we didn't have enough time. Pa Konate and Bernardo Couto are injured, hopefully not long term. Romesh Ivey was not ready for the game and he was not ready to let him start and asked to come in the second half so he could be effective as many minutes as possible. From then on, it is normal when there are so many changes to change the very appearance of the team.
If I have to talk about tactics – we wanted to get out of their counter press and that high press of the opponent. Many times this long ball was very effective, especially the first half. Akhmed Akhmedov kept a lot of balls, Antonio Vutov also tried and did a lot of good things in the first half. We just didn't have an accurate pass.
In the dressing room after the game, I told the boys they had to keep their heads up. For me, each one of them tried hard, there wasn't a single one who didn't want Spartak to enter the match and turn the score around. I have no complaints against them, I have no problem with the footballers. They're great guys, they wanted to, but it just didn't happen.
I, the fans, will not comment on them. The fans are fans, they love their team, they made a great choreography, congratulated the holiday of all Bulgarians, supported the team from the first to the last second, they did a great job. Their job is to support the team and they did it. That they have a thing for me is another matter, that's how it is in our profession. They are entitled to an opinion, everyone is entitled to an opinion. I have no problem with this thing.
We are still waiting for the two players. They are not here and I still have no clarity. We have been waiting for them for a long time. The last two weeks I haven't been able to pay attention to them because of the derby and the first two games. We have to find time to do it because our bench is quite short, two or three injuries you saw how they throw the team off balance, so these are normal things, we are waiting, I have no new information about these players. And I want them to be here, and I want to have more opportunities. Today I did everything possible with the changes we made to change the course of the game. You saw that I tried to bring in as many attacking players as possible.
I congratulated all the football players because, for example, Viktor Mitev played a whole game, and this year he hasn't played a whole game so far, and he tried to help the boy as much as he could. As well as Antonio Vutov, and Ahmed Akhmedov, and Christian Ilitch, and Angel Grnchov, and Mateo Petroshilo, and Radoslav Dimitrov. Radoslav Dimitrov has not played as a starter for a long time. The boy came in, he tried, he gave his all, so I have nothing against the footballers.
Our role – to the coach, to the management, to the fans, we all together must do so that the footballers overcome this result as quickly as possible, this very unpleasant loss on our ground, and the next match against Septemvri we show a calmer game and go out from this tension. Let this strain be on me alone, let me bear all the strain, I don't mind.“