Football news

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois commented on the situation with the team's goalkeepers ahead of the Champions League final.

"It's amazing for me to be able to play in the final, but I feel very sorry for Lunin," Real Madrid Exclusivo quoted Courtois as saying.

As a reminder, the Champions League final will take place today in London at Wembley Stadium. The match starts at 21:45 Kyiv time.

Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes may leave the club this summer.

According to journalist Fabrizio Romano, the player's agent Miguel Pinho is exploring other options for his client to continue his career.

"Bruno Fernandes' agent Miguel Pinho met with several top clubs in Europe this week. Bruno is fully focused on United, but a final decision on his future is yet to be made," Romano wrote on his Twitter page.

As a reminder, Fernandes has 2 years left on his current deal with Manchester United.

"Bukovyna has outlined its immediate transfer targets. All of them are the wishes of the new head coach Valeriy Kryventsov.

According to journalist Ihor Burbas, the Chernivtsi team's shortlist includes experienced Vitaliy Koltsov from Ingults, as well as four representatives from the UPL - Oleksandr Filippov (who is finalising his deal with Dnipro-1), Vladyslav Vakula from Minaya, and Vladyslav Naumets and Serhiy Shestakov, both of whom represent LNZ.

Bukovyna is ready to offer competitive market conditions at the UPL level to all of them. For the next season, the club aims to be promoted to the elite division of the Ukrainian championship from first place.

Journalist and commentator Viktor Vatsko spoke about the possible transfer of Dnipro 1 midfielder Oleksandr Pikhalenok to Dynamo or Shakhtar.

"As far as I know, Dynamo Kyiv were now very interested in acquiring Oleksandr Pikhalenok. Dnipro 1 have financial problems, Dnipro 1 really need money, so Dnipro 1 are forced to sell off their leading players.

We are not talking about 10, 15, 150 million for Pihalenka. The sum of 2.5 million was mentioned. I do not know whether it was dollars or euros. It doesn't matter. 2.5 million in some hard currency. But. Pikhalenok once moved to Dnipro-1 from Shakhtar and in the agreement between the clubs there was a clause that in case of a transfer offer for Pikhalenok, which would suit Dnipro-1, Dnipro should inform Shakhtar. And if Shakhtar are ready to repeat the offer, then it is Shakhtar who will have the right of "first night" for the player's transfer.

"Shakhtar did not consider Pikhalenok as an option. In principle, they have enough players in the centre of the pitch. Sudakov, Bondarenko, Kryskiv, Marlon Gomez, Pedrinho. Therefore, I would not say that the centre midfielder is a critical position. Pihalenka has not been considered by Shakhtar.

But according to my WhatsApp, as soon as Akhmetov learnt that Pikhalenok could move to Dynamo, the situation changed dramatically and Sasha became dramatically needed by Shakhtar," Vatsko said.

Dynamo Kyiv and Ukraine goalkeeper Heorhii Bushchan jokingly answered the UAF press service's questions about his age. Recently, our goalkeeper turned 30 years old.

"Jokes about old age? I'm still young, this is the beginning of an older life, so to speak. Does something hurt? Yes. This morning I woke up - neck, knee. Everything made itself felt. Probably the weather. And my joints hurt (laughs)," Bushchan said.

Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih players handed over UPL bronze medals to the families of the fallen ultras.

Immediately after the players and staff of the Club were presented with the awards for the third place in the UPL championship of the 23/24 season, the players made a special offer. They decided to hand over the medals to the families of Kryvbas fans who gave their lives for our freedom and independence. It is symbolic that immediately after the award ceremony, the players approached the Heroes' Stand of the Girnyk Stadium and hung the medals on the silhouettes of the fallen soldiers.

"The players made an offer that I could not refuse, but could only accept. They expressed a desire to hand over the awards to 18 families of the Red and White ultras who gave the most valuable thing in this war - their own lives. Because without their feat, there would be no success today," the club's official website quotes Artem Gagarin, the club's vice president, as saying.

Many thanks to all the defenders of Ukraine! A low bow to you. Glory to Ukraine!

On Monday, 3 June, a friendly match between the national teams of Germany and Ukraine will take place at the Max Morlock Stadium in Nuremberg.

According to UEFA's official website, the match will be officiated by a refereeing team from Austria.

Walter Altmann has been appointed as the chief referee. He will be assisted by assistants on the lines: Maximilian Kolbich and Andreas Wichtnigg. The fourth referee is Harald Legner. All the referees are from Austria.

The match will also feature the VAR system. VAR referee: Julian Weinberger. Assistant VAR referee: Andreas Heiss (both from Austria).

It will be recalled that the friendly match between Germany and Ukraine will take place on Monday, 3 June. The match starts at 21:45 Kyiv time.

On 31 May, the Ukrainian national team, which is preparing for the start of Euro 2024, held two training sessions at its German training camp. In the afternoon, La Liga's top scorer Artem Dovbyk joined the national team. The newly minted Pichichi arrived in Munich on a flight from Barcelona and immediately joined the team.

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Secretary General of the UAF Igor Hryshchenko shared his expectations from the June matches of the national football team of Ukraine in Germany:

"On 1 June, I go to Nuremberg, where Serhiy Rebrov's wards will play one of the last control matches before the final part of the European Championship with the Germans on 3 June.

There are reasons to hope that there will be a full house on Monday. Just like at the matches against Romania, Slovakia and Belgium at Euro 2024. All those tickets, which were allocated by UEFA for Ukrainian fans, have long ago found their happy owners, the same can be said about the fans of the opponents.

I am sure that our fans even made efforts to buy tickets for other quotas. That's why we can safely say that in Germany the Ukrainian national team support of the 12th player is guaranteed".

Shakhtar and Ukraine national team players Yefim Konoplya and Georgiy Sudakov have revealed that the Donetsk team are no longer staying at the Emily Resort hotel in Vinniki.

- Are you looking forward to Euro 2024?

- I'm wondering if the England national team gets to the Euros the same way we do. Or not.

- This time you are travelling by train, because you usually come from Lviv.

- Who was it that said we got kicked out of the Emily Resort? Gypsy? No, Wacko. Vatsko said that we were kicked out of Emily, so we have to go from Kiev.

- Can we disprove those rumours? You didn't get kicked out of Emily?

- Yes, we were. They said on the Internet that we were kicked out. So, yes," Konoplya said.

"To be honest, I don't know. I haven't been to Emily in a while. No one from our team lives there anymore," Sudakov added.

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

Volodymyr Shepelev (1997) - Ukrainian footballer, midfielder of Dynamo Kyiv. He was brought up in Odessa football. Since the age of seven he was engaged in the children's school "Chernomorets". In 2010 he moved to Dynamo. In the championship of youth teams U-21 debuted in 2015 in the match Dynamo - Metalist (Kharkiv) - 2:1. On 25 February 2017, at the age of 19, he made his debut for the first team in the Premier League match against Luhansk Zorya.

Vladimir Shchegolkov (1937-2008) - former footballer. He was brought up in Odessa football, where he started to play for local Pischevik, Metallurg and Vodnik (all now Chernomorets). Later he ended up in Dynamo Kyiv, where he became a three-time champion and two-time winner of the USSR Cup. He played 214 matches in the USSR championships and scored 5 goals.

Famous Slovakian coach Ladislav Molnar is pessimistic about the attacking potential of the Slovak national team at Euro-2024 in the conditions that the national team's bid for the upcoming tournament did not include forwards Robert Mack and Aleksandar Čavric.

"I can't imagine who will lead the Slovakia national team's attack at Euro 2024 in the absence of Mack and Čavric. Polijevka has now just completed a long recovery from injury and it is difficult to say what condition he will be in. Bozhenik's performances are unstable: he can suddenly "explode" with a goal, and then for a long time he is not seen at all. In such a situation, not to attract Chavric and Mack to Euro 2024 is too great a luxury", - Sport24 quoted Molnar as saying.

We shall remind you that Slovakia, along with Belgium and Romania, is Ukraine's opponent in the Euro 2024 group.