Before yesterday's match of the second round of the group stage of Euro 2024 against Austria (1-3), the Polish national team fans expressed their attitude to the terrorist tumor of the planet called "Russia" in an eloquent form.
The Poles marched through the streets of Berlin, where the game took place, chanting the slogan "ruska - kurwa!" ("Russia is a bitch!").
Well-known manager and expert Vyacheslav Zakhovailo shared his impressions of the match of the 2nd round of the group stage of Euro-2024 Slovakia - Ukraine (2:1), which took place yesterday in Düsseldorf.
"We got three points, I would even say that we suffered. The construction of our defense is unconvincing. They open us up as they want and where they want.
In professional soccer, psychology plays the most important role. It is very striking that the team is psychologically overheated in a bad sense. Here are the arguments.
Ukraine after the first conceded goal from the Romanians, and before the first goal scored to the Slovaks looked terribly depressed. The reason? Fear of losing and great responsibility. It constrained the players.
There was a great stretch of the game against the Romanians before the conceded goal. And we started to act well after scoring a goal to the Slovaks. My conclusion: the players are under a lot of pressure.
In the defensive unit our edge defenders are falling out. The interaction between our support zone and central defenders is just a disaster.
Today we played against a weak opponent. The Slovakian team is just quiet, the players simply have no speed.
It's good to win. Good luck to everyone. Glory to Ukraine!", - wrote Zakhovailo on his page in the social network Facebook.
Former Manchester United defender Harry Neville has criticized England's performance at Euro 2024.
"It feels like we've been through this before. This is no time to panic. I don't think Gareth Southgate is panicking, but it's time for him to find a solution and change something.
There is an imbalance in the team, it's like a square peg in a round hole. Because of this, you start to drop deeper because you don't feel comfortable. You can't play through the midfield and play the ball from the defense. You end up losing the ball and it leads to chaos. We have seen this before. It needs to change now," Neville told ITV.
22.06.2024, 10:25
Dynamo and Ukraine national team midfielder Volodymyr Brazhko admitted that a day before yesterday's match against Slovakia (2:1) in the 2nd round of the group stage at Euro 2024 his grandfather passed away.
"I didn't really want to talk about it, but the day before the match my grandfather passed away. So I had a double motivation to go out and prove today," Brazko said while talking to reporters after the match against Slovakia.
We shall remind you that Brazko started the match with the Slovaks in the starting lineup and spent almost the entire match on the field - he was substituted in the 85th minute of the game.
22.06.2024, 10:04
Ukraine midfielder Oleksandr Zinchenko commented on the victory of his national team over Slovakia (2:1) in yesterday's match of the 2nd round of the group stage of Euro 2024.
"Even after conceding a goal, we tried to push each other and it worked in the second half. We tried to score. Even at 0-1 we tried again and again. I think it was not easy for the opponent to play against us like that.
The experience I got from the best in the sport helped me: if you make a mistake, the most important thing is your reaction. You can't go back in time, it's already happened, it's already history. We're all human, we all make mistakes. If you give up, you have no chance to come back and win.
Now we are waiting for a super difficult match against one of the best teams in Europe and the world. The Belgian national team has a lot of world-class players. If we want to beat such teams, if we want to get out of this group, we will have to play to the maximum," - Zinchenko was quoted by the official website of UEFA.
Yesterday's defeat of the Polish national team against Austria (1-3) in the 2nd round of the group stage of Euro 2024 was fatal for it.
A round before the end of the group stage of the European Championship, the Polish national team has no points in the asset and has lost its theoretical chances to rise from the last place in Group "D".
Current standings in Group "D":
1. Netherlands - 4 points
2. France - 4
3. Austria - 3
4. Poland - 0.
Even if Poland manages to overtake Austria in terms of points, it will not overtake it, as it lost to it in a personal meeting, and, according to the tournament regulations, it is this indicator that is taken into account first when points are equal.
Thus, the Polish national team became the first team among the participants of Euro 2024, which lost the chance to get out of the group.
Ukraine national team defender Vitaliy Mykolenko, who has not played a single minute at Euro 2024 due to a foot injury, spoke about his condition at the moment.
"Already today (Friday - ed.), you can say, was preparing in the clip - this is the most important thing for me. We have four days to prepare for the next match. I think everything will be fine, I will be ready.
You could have seen me on the pitch in the match with Slovakia, but I was not released. So here - - as the coaching staff decides, it's not up to me," said Mikolenko on Youtube channel SportArena after yesterday's match of the 2nd round of the group stage of Euro-2024 with Slovakia (2:1).
We would like to add that Mikolenko has been training in the general group since Thursday.
Dynamo Kyiv and Ukraine national team midfielder Andriy Yarmolenko commented on his national team's victory over Slovakia (2:1) in yesterday's match of the 2nd round of the Euro 2024 group stage.
"We are a team!
Thank you to the fans! A very difficult game, a very important victory. Yesterday we had hope, today we got confidence!
The decisive match ahead (with Belgium, - ed.), we will prepare," - wrote Yarmolenko on his page in the social network Instagram.
On Saturday, June 22, the final matches of the 2nd round of the group stage at Euro 2024 in Germany will be played. Here is their schedule.
Group "F". 2nd round
Georgia - Czech Republic (16:00, Hamburg, Volksparkstadion)
Turkey - Portugal (19:00, Dortmund, "Signal Iduna Park").
Group "E". 2nd round
Belgium - Romania (22:00, Cologne, Rhein-Energie-Stadion).
Kick-off times are given in Kiev. In Ukraine, you can watch all the matches of Euro 2024 in live broadcast via the streaming service MEGOGO.
22.06.2024, 08:10
Former Ukraine midfielder Yevhen Levchenko shared his impressions of yesterday's match of the 2nd round of the group stage of Euro 2024 in Group "E" Slovakia - Ukraine (1:2).
"I think in the first half the players of the Ukraine national team were looking at how to play. They were watching how to defend. Because Slovakia played very well in the first half. If it was not for Trubin, we would not be so happy now. Because after 0:2 or 0:3, I doubt that we would have returned to such a score. So we have to thank Trubin for the fact that he played a very classy match. How he pulled us out by the ears. For me, he along with Yaremchuk are the heroes of the match.
After 30 minutes, I think, we took the initiative a little bit. We started to get more involved, to press more, to move. I think it gave us some confidence. I would not say that we created a lot of chances, but there were a few situations where we could say that everything was not so bad.
In the second half we completely beat the Slovaks. Here we need to thank Rebrov, who did not play two strikers, but released Yaremchuk (instead of Dovbik - ed.). If he screwed up the first moment, he did everything cool in the second, scored such a cool goal - I think it should be recorded as one of the best goals from a technical point of view. Because such a reception of the ball, control - we have to thank him for that.
Two contrasting halves. The first 30 minutes we played unsure. But then we switched on - it shows that we have everything, but we need to get it from deep", - "Tribuna" quotes Levchenko.
22.06.2024, 07:46
Volodymyr Brazhko, the midfielder of Dynamo Kyiv and the Ukraine national team, commented on the victory of his national team over Slovakia (2:1) in yesterday's match of the 2nd round of the group stage of Euro-2024 in Group "E" on the air of the Youtube-channel "PROFUTBOL Digital".
22.06.2024, 07:22
Defender and captain of the Slovakian national team Milan Shkrinjar commented on the defeat of his national team from Ukraine (1:2) in yesterday's match of the 2nd round of the group stage of Euro 2024.
"The first half went well from our side, but we simply have no right to play the way we played in the second half. We didn't follow instructions and allowed the opponent to turn the game around. We are disappointed, we imagined this match differently. But in this group everything is still in our hands.
It's a shame to miss such a chance to win after the first half, but we need to keep our heads up. We need to correct what we did not do well today and improve our game. Especially what we showed in the second half," the official UEFA website quoted Shkrignard as saying.
