Tomorrow, on June 5th, the blue-and-yellow team will play their final playoff match for the 2022 World Cup qualification against Wales (kickoff at 19:00 Kyiv time). Ahead of this decisive game, our team's head coach Oleksandr Petrakov participated in a press conference.

— Why did you decide to call up Danil Igнатenko?

— I called him much earlier. He had a visa issue, so he only arrived with us now.

— Do you feel more pressure now compared to before the match against Scotland?

— There is no pressure on me at all. We are preparing for the game in our usual routine.

— Did you or your team receive messages from soldiers on the front lines after the victory over Scotland?

— Many players received a lot of messages. No one contacted me personally. President of the UAF Andriy Pavelko went to the frontline, brought us an Ukrainian flag signed by soldiers. Before the game, we hung it up in the locker room.

— What impressed you about the Wales team? What are their strongest sides?

— It's a very well-played team. I see great work from Rob Page's coaching staff. There are many world-class players — Ramsey, Bale, James. We also have a pretty good team. Tomorrow, two national teams will compete for a place at the World Cup. I think it will be an enjoyable game that fans will like. But how it will turn out — I never predict.

— Don't you feel that people undervalue your team because of the current situation in Ukraine?

— The situation in our country is very difficult. Not everyone follows football. We have a lot of tragedy, people are dying... Undervaluation? We don't think about that. We think about how to make our fans happy and our military forces proud, and we focus on the game.