Football news

Today gave the world several famous people who closely connected their lives with football:

Oleksandr Karavaev (1992) - Ukrainian footballer, Dynamo midfielder. Earlier he played in "Zara". He started playing football in his native Kherson, but at the age of 13 he was invited to Shakhtar Donetsk, however, he never played for the first team. He also played for Sevastopol and Fenerbahce. In October 2015, he made his debut for the Ukrainian national team, coming on as a substitute in the 86th minute of the away match against Macedonia in place of Andriy Yarmolenko.

Sergio Agüero (1988) is a former striker for Barcelona and the Argentina national team. Before moving to the Catalan club played for Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and domestic Independiente. Champion of England, one of the best players of the English Premier League. Atletico won the Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup. Agüero was married to Diego Maradona's daughter, and Lionel Messi is godfather to his son Sergio.

František Planicka (1904-1996) was a Czech football goalkeeper, one of the most honoured players in the history of football. He played most of his career for the Prague club Slavia. He became the national champion 8 times and won the Mitropa Cup once. He was captain of the Czechoslovak national team at the World Championships in 1934 (second place) and 1938. Some sports publications recognised him as the best goalkeeper of the era.

Borussia Dortmund striker Jaydon Sancho has spoken about how he feels about the team after a few months with them.

"I am grateful to the team and the staff for welcoming me back. It's very nice. I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to make new friends. I'm very dependent on trust, but it's hard for me to trust people. I think when you grow up in South London, you are taught that a team is a big family. That's why I feel a strong connection to Dortmund," CNN quoted Sancho as saying.

Belgium midfielder Axel Witsel has revealed what he thinks about his team's upcoming performance at Euro 2024.

"We are no longer among the main favourites for the European Championship. But our squad now is a good combination of experience and youth. In any case, I prefer to think of the Belgian national team as an outsider at Euro 2024. We have to move from match to match. Then everything is possible," said Witsel on the air of the national broadcaster after the first training session of the Belgian national team in preparation for the European Championship.

We will remind, the national team of Belgium along with the national team of Romania and Slovakia is the rival of the national team of Ukraine in the group of Euro-2024.

There is a trend in Ukrainian football now that some clubs have started to create their own second teams. The first of the UPL teams was Rukh Lviv, which entered the Second League last season.

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"Napoli estimates the transfer value of striker Khvichi Kvaratskhelia at €130 million, La Gazzetta dello Sport reports.

According to the source, French side Paris Saint-Germain is interested in Kvaratskhelia's services, but the Parisians are willing to pay €60 million for the 23-year-old. Napoli, on the other hand, intends to pay at least €130 million for their leader.

Earlier, the media reported that PSG had agreed on the terms of a personal contract with the Georgian striker.

Former Lviv Karpaty striker Taras Kabanov recalled a case of financial incentives from Shakhtar Donetsk.

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The head coach of the Romanian national team, Edward Iordanescu, has spoken about his team's objectives for Euro 2024. The Romanian national team will play in the same group as Ukraine, Belgium and Slovakia at the group stage of the tournament.

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Honoured Coach of Ukraine Ivan Balan shared his expectations of the Ukrainian national team's performance at Euro 2024.

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Ukrainian goalkeeper Andriy Lunin became the winner of the Champions League season-2023/24 with Real Madrid.

The 25-year-old goalkeeper won the main European Cup tournament for the second time in his career: before that he triumphed with Real Madrid in the Champions League in the season-2021/22. This made Lunin the first Ukrainian to win the Champions League twice.

The legendary Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko, who won the Champions League with Italian side AC Milan in the 2002/03 season, has one Champions League trophy.

A certain "Anatoliy Timoshchuk" also once won the Champions League, but after his betrayal of Ukraine he no longer has anything to do with Ukrainian football.

Ukrainian footballers in the Champions League finals

Andriy Shevchenko - 3 finals

Andriy Lunin - 2

Oleksandr Zinchenko - 1.

Well-known manager and expert Vyacheslav Zakhovailo shared his impressions of the final match of the Champions League season-2023/24, in which Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0 yesterday.

"Don Carlo, what did you say to your players at half-time?

"Borussia were unequivocally better in the first half. The Germans showed the benchmark of game organisation. A medium block, nine players behind the ball - in a word, a mosquito without a ticket would not fly through. They ran into counterattacks with lightning speed and a large number of attacking players. There were chances, what can I say. "Real" was clearly not ready for such a structure of the game.

What happened at half-time? "Real came out completely different. The game was completely turned around. "Real dominated. We had no doubts about who would win the Champions League.

Bravo Ancelotti, bravo Real Madrid. Thank you for the positive emotions," Zakhovailo wrote on his Facebook page.

The result of yesterday's Champions League final match of the 2023/24 season, in which Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0, has changed Shakhtar Donetsk's starting position in the Champions League next season.

It should be recalled that initially the Pitmen were supposed to start their performance in the Champions League with the play-off round, but now they got a direct ticket to the main stage of the tournament.

The fact is that Real Madrid, having become Spanish champions, qualified for the main stage of the Champions League in the 2024/25 season. But, the right to play there gets the winner of the Champions League of the previous season, and this is also "Real". According to UEFA regulations, in this case, in this case, the place in the main stage of the Champions League thus freed up is occupied by the team with the highest UEFA club coefficient among all the teams that start in the Champions League from the play-off round. And this team in this case turned out to be Shakhtar, whose UEFA club coefficient now stands at 63.000.

We would like to remind you that next season the Champions League main stage will be held in a new format: instead of the usual groups, there will be one league for 36 teams, and each of them will play 8 matches in the tournament against different opponents, which will be determined by the draw.

Before the draw for the Champions League main stage, which will take place on 29 August, all participants will be divided into four baskets, with nine teams in each - according to UEFA club coefficients. "Shakhtar will be placed in the second basket. The first round of the Champions League next season will take place from 17 to 19 September, while the final, eighth round - on 29 January.

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois addressed words of gratitude to his teammate and goalkeeping rival, Ukrainian Andriy Lunin, after Borussia Dortmund's 2-0 victory in the Champions League final.

"We must thank Andriy Lunin for everything," - quotes Courtois MadridZone.

Recall, on the eve of the Champions League final Lunin fell ill with the flu and for this reason did not prepare for the game. In the application for the match with Borussia, the Ukrainian was included, but remained in the reserve. Prior to that, Lunin played 8 games for Real Madrid in the Champions League, conceding a total of 10 goals. In total, this season on the account of the goalkeeper 31 matches in all tournaments (32 goals conceded).