Fotios Takianos: «It was a tough game against a good team»

Astana's head coach Fotios Takianos summarized the first match in Almaty.

«It was a tough game against a good team. Unfortunately, we're not at full strength, and during today's match, Pushica also got injured. We really wanted to perform better here for the fans in Almaty, but the absence of several players made things difficult.

I think we couldn't start the game as strongly as we wanted because we were tired. We used up a lot of energy in our last game against Runa and just couldn't bounce back in time for this one.

The energy, quality, and experience allowed Uralmash to create a significant gap in the score. Towards the end, we decided to give more playtime to the Kazakh players, allowing them to show their skills, as it's important for the team to have local players in great shape. We also decided to give some rest to the players who have had too much playtime in recent matches.

Now, we need to highlight the positive moments and try to perform better in the next match.

Gavrilov's condition? He's not yet 100% recovered but was cleared by the medical staff to play today based on his condition. We're counting on him in the upcoming games.

Davis continues to have back issues. He's receiving treatment, and we're waiting for him to recover.

We're very happy to play here, in this arena, in front of the Almaty fans. The support of the audience is very important to us. The match against MBA is crucial for us in the fight for the play-in, and we invite fans to the game. We promise to play better on Sunday than we did today.»