Marcel Licka: I saw fighters on the pitch, who wanted to win

— Today we had almost a youth team. For these guys – Lepskiy, Bessmertnyi – it was a very difficult encounter, because they had to play against solid strikers. And they managed to stop them, though not always. At the beginning of the second half, Lokomotiv could have scored twice, but they didn't convert their chances. In our turn, we did it and won by 3:1.

There was a lot of work, a lot of struggle on our side. The quality of the game was not what I would like to see, but the situation is what it is. We have to try, work hard and earn points. In the derby against Lokomotiv, our young guys did a good job. Tomorrow we will forget about this victory and start preparing for the next derby against Spartak.

— Fernandez and Laxalt missed the match by the decision of the medical staff. When will they return to the pitch?

— Fernandez has been recovering for two weeks now, next week he should start working on the pitch individually. I will field him, when he will be 100 percent ready. The same goes to Luis Chavez, whom I could have included in the squad today, but I didn't want to risk his health. He should be ready for the game against Akron. Laxalt had back pain and we didn't want him to play under injections. We will not risk him either. Let's see if he's available for Akron.

— You said that if you don't see the proper mood of the young players, you will send them to the second team. Are you satisfied with their attitude to work today?

— Yes, Lepskiy made a mistake today, and Andrey Lunyov saved our team. It happens, everyone makes mistakes. I can't say that someone didn't run or didn't try. It was hard for Leps, his legs were already cramping by the end. But I told him to hold on to the final whistle. In addition, I fielded Leon Zaydenzal to help the defensive line.

— You celebrated the first goal very loudly on the bench. Was it a homework?

— No, but when I saw that all the Lokomotiv players sat in their penalty area, and Luka was standing alone, I started cluing my guys. It's good that Bitello saw it too and immediately assisted on Luka. He shot from the left, and luck smiled on him. We must pay tribute to the intuition of the footballers. They created this nice goal.

— It seems that you are starting to attract good luck. How many changes will there be in the line-up for the next match, because the team did not show the game that is expected of it?

— Today there were a lot of young guys, who recently played on the artificial pitch of our training ground in the Second League. I can't ask them to make the difference in serious matches. Experienced players should bear a lot of responsibility. I agree that we were lucky in some episodes, and the opponent did not punish us for mistakes. It's good that the guys didn't get hung up on it after such a start of the second half and tried to keep playing.

Not everyone likes to go where Milan scored from, because there is a lot of struggle in the goalkeeper's area and you get bruises more often than the opportunity to shoot. This is another advantage of Milan – he is aggressive, fast and is not afraid to enter such zones. He made it 2:1, and then Moumi Ngamaleu performed a great run. I liked that at the end, already with heavy legs, Dynamo players kept a desire to run into counterattacks and finish off the opponent. This is a big plus. I thanked the team for seeing fighters on the pitch, who wanted to win. Yes, we didn't show the quality of football that I like, but sometimes you just have to work hard on the pitch in a difficult situation, otherwise you can't count on success. You should always go out and fight on the pitch.

— Dynamo scored two out of three goals from the set pieces. Did you pay special attention to this aspect during the pre-season?

— We always devote 12-15 minutes to this aspect during pre-game training. But if you don't have players, who want and know how to go into the penalty area and fight for the ball, then you can at least train set pieces all week, but it won't be any use. In addition, you need footballers, who know how to cross into the penalty area like Bitello, Carrascal or Fomin.

— In the first half, Lokomotiv created five chances, of which three came after Dynamo's mistakes. What do you associate it with – youth, excitement or euphoria after the successful first match?

— There was no euphoria. We must pay tribute to the quality of Lokomotiv's players. They have a lot of experienced, good footballers. We had Milan in defense, who had just started playing and was out for a year due to injury. Lepskiy and Bessmertny recently played for the second team. There is a lot of pressure on them and I was a little angry at the centre-backs, because they were slow with the ball. They should gain experience in such matches. They need to spend a year or two at this level to forge confidence and take responsibility for the result.