The head coach of the youth national team of Ukraine Ruslan Rotan told what he expects from the second leg of the playoff round of the Euro 2023 (U-21) qualifying round with Slovakia. Recall that the first meeting of the teams ended with the defeat of the Ukrainian team with a score of 2:3.
Ruslan Rotan“These two days were dedicated to the team recovering more both physically and psychologically. We allotted this time for recovery, so I think the guys are ready and understand what is needed tomorrow. I think everything is in our hands and feet.
As for the personnel situation, as happens after matches, there are some microdamages. Ovcharenko will miss the fight due to disqualification. This is our only loss.
Defense game? Everyone understands that we made mistakes. But everyone always loses together, the main thing is to draw conclusions and move on. We have drawn conclusions, and I am sure that tomorrow we will not make such mistakes.
In terms of psychology, everything is probably so arranged that the guys understand: unnecessary emotions and experiences should be discarded. There is a match to be won. Everyone understands this very well.
In the composition of Slovakia in the first match, players were singled out who had more confidence. These are football players from the national team who have already played for the first team and demonstrated a pretty good game. Sagittarius, Suslov - they showed us that they are performers leading the whole team. Well, you need to separately highlight the character, this is their main weapon. This is a team that fights for the result to the end. We saw it in the last match, we will see it tomorrow. We need to be ready first for this character and for this game when there are many long passes.
I would say that psychologically we understand: we only need a victory, we need to drop everything. Due to our skill, structure... We all need to show character. This is perhaps the most difficult game for us at this stage, so we must understand this.
Stadium? To be honest, it was the first time they came to it, this is the first training. Probably, I would like to practice even before that, but such is the situation that we did not have such an opportunity. It's okay, it's a good stadium, modern. We have every chance to show a good game and please, first of all, our soldiers and defenders, as well as the whole country. Lawn? I have already said that Slovakia has driven us into a trap with an artificial field in Zilina. Therefore, we returned to the green lawn, and everything is at our feet.
I would like the Ukrainians living and staying here because of the war to support us. We will be glad to see them and will do everything to get Ukraine to the European Championship," Rotan said.
