Mikhail Markhel: «We want to repeat that long-standing achievement»

The head coach of the national team of Belarus, accompanied by midfielder Max Ebong, answered the questions of journalists,ahead of the match against the Netherlands.

- What is the state of your team at the moment, and what impression did the Netherlands team make in the match against Northern Ireland?

- Fortunately, everyone is healthy and ready to play. Now we are preparing as usual. We are well motivated by the status of the match and the opponent. We will try to devote more time to work on tactics. As for the Dutch game, we, of course, analyzed their games and analyzed their last match. Something useful was learned from the actions of the Irish in that match. That match showed that with the right motivation and the correct construction of the game, you can fight with such top teams.

- The Dutch decided the outcome of the match with Northern Ireland in the last minutes. This means that physically our opponent is very well prepared. And what about our players?

- I wish matches with such rivals took place as often as possible. I think the guys are ready very well.

- Memphis Depay left the Netherlands team. How serious is this loss?

- I think that there is someone to replace Depay, because this is a world-class team. The Dutch have individually strong players, so it will be difficult to talk about a personal game against someone. We focus on team action.

- After the match with the Estonians, you said that you will spend two hours at the screen. Have you watched the game Netherlands - Northern Ireland, or have you reviewed our match?

- I watched the Netherlands - Northern Ireland game.

- What is your priority: to get points, or to see how the youth will show themselves against such a strong opponent?

- We will try to combine the first and second, because we play in front of our spectators and must give a fight, but we also need to give a chance to young football players to prove themselves, we want to repeat that long-standing achievement.

- Do you mean the 1995 match?

- Yes, I mean that game.

- The Netherlands came here only for victory... They came to beat us.

- We had no doubt that the Dutch would come over-motivated. We expect pressure from their side, which we will try to level.

- Judging by the previous match, you put the team a more attacking game, but it did not work against the Welsh. Should we expect this tomorrow?

- The opponent’s class obliges us to make certain adjustments to our tactics and the game as a whole, but we will try to stick to the selected vector. It is clear that we will not be able to constantly attack and keep the pressure against such an opponent on such a pitch, but we will try to play our own football.

- The right wing was very active against the Estonian national team. Will it be the same on Sunday?

- I would not say that we played only through the right wing. We played as the match developed and tried in every possible way to diversify our actions. The first half didn’t work out for us then, and in the second half we began to create much more chances up front.

- Can you evaluate the condition of the pitch?

- A very viscous field, as I looked. I hope the workers will do everything to fix it. In any case, the pitch is the same for everyone.