The coach of the Ukrainian national team is only worried about the quality of the ice before the decisive match against Lithuania

The fight for gold medals and entry into the higher group between the national teams of Ukraine and Lithuania will take place at the World Ice Hockey Division I Group B tournament in Vilnius.

Both the Ukrainians and the Lithuanians won four victories each and are unbeaten. In general, the Ukrainian team did not concede a single goal in the first three matches, and in the fourth match against Spain, they had to chase their opponents for the first time, when the Spaniards scored the first goal of the championship against the Ukrainian team in the first half.

Coach of the Ukrainian national team Dmitry Christic said that the “humanity” came into play in the match against Spain, which made the hockey players relax.

“We prepared the players for difficult matches, but you understand that we are all human. Maybe somewhere we treated our opponent without due respect and it got in the way. I am grateful to the guys for turning the game around in the third quarter and showing their class. It’s hard for me to say how Spain lost to China because they play so much better than them.

The first goal conceded in the World Cup doesn’t bother me. That’s what we need. We’re going to win, and stats are stats – they’re for the experts. The most important thing is that there are three points.”

In the first match of the Ukrainian national team against Estonia, Bogdan Dyachenko defended the goal, in the matches against the Netherlands and China – Eduard Zacharchenko, who competed in Lithuania for a while, and in the match against Spain – B. Dyachenko again.

D. Christičius said that he does not yet know which goalkeeper will defend the team’s goal in the match against Lithuania and expressed only one hesitation – due to the condition of the ice in the “Twinsbet” arena.

“We will decide on the goalkeeper with the goalkeeper coach. We just need to go out and beat Lithuania, that’s all. This will be the last match of the tournament, and the fans will support Lithuania. We are only worried about the quality of the ice,” said the coach.

We remind you that the match of the Ukrainian national team against the Netherlands was stopped for half an hour while the broken ice near the side was repaired. A similar problem occurred during the match between Lithuania and the Netherlands, but then everything was fixed very quickly and the teams extended the match. Often, in such a universal arena, there is also a problem with keeping the goal, because the special pins do not hold firmly and the goal is very easily moved from its place.

The Ukrainians said after the match against the Netherlands that when the stands are full and the heat rises, “ice can turn to water.”

Meanwhile, a player of the Ukrainian ice hockey team Viktor Zakharov said that “the first half against Spain was the most difficult of the tournament”.

“I had no doubts about our victory, although Spain showed their best hockey, but in the third period they didn’t have the energy anymore. Now we will prepare for the match against Lithuania. It will be the final, and anything can happen in such a tournament,” said the player.

The meeting of the national teams of Lithuania and Ukraine will take place on Friday from 7:30 p.m.