Mikhail Markhel: «We can look to the future with optimism»

The head coach of the national team of Belarus summed up the results of the home match against the Netherlands.

- Good experience for us - such a game with such rivals. I think the guys passed the exam. We did not win, but they proved that this team has a character. We can look to the future with optimism.​​​​​​​

- I heard the opinion that the Netherlands played at half strength while our team tried it's best and still could not beat them. Is'nt it a shame to hear this?

- It's not a shame.

- Why did the second part of the second half not work out?

- I can’t say that it didn’t work out. At some point we began to create less chances moments, but you have to consider that we are playing against the national team of the Netherlands. If someone says that they played at half strength, then they are mistaken. I think that physically we were good until the end and we kept the given strategy. In principle, the second half showed that we are on the right track.

- Again we can say that today is not our day. But not the same as it was with Estonia?

- There are defeats like today that cost more than victory. It is important for me that the team did not give up and continued to stick to it's plan. And in a certain situation we could have drawn with the leading team in the world.

- What did you tell the players during the break?

- We corrected the game on the wings tried to deliver more balls up front. This paid us dividends in the first half. And I mentally tuned the guys to play the same way as in the first half. And luck will definitely come.

- Almost half of the team received yellow cards ...

- No complaints to the guys, all cards on the case. Well, somewhere it was possible not to give the yellow card... You should understand that we faced the Netherlands. By the way, in the second half, when we started to foul more, it may be wrong to some extent, but the game came to life on our part. During the break we asked for less respect for the Dutch. As the game showed, this strategy was right.