Ratem Frankov: "Our priceless UAF scored on the Ukrainian national team, because no one believes in its chances to get ahead of

ublished journalist and editor-in-chief of Football magazine Artem Frankov has prepared a forecast for the Euro 2024 qualifying match between England and Ukraine.

"England has already started and started very well - with a 2-1 away victory over Italy, where everything could have been decided in the first half, but they allowed the opponent to scramble. Ukraine responded with a brilliant victory in a powerful friendly against Brentford 2-0, which is known only from a report on uaf.ua - sorry, I did not go to the London club's website. It's pointless to talk about someone daring to do something: they don't ask us - go out and play. In the end, this path is eternal and it has long been started, although this particular European race consists of eight rounds.

I have repeatedly spoken about my main impression: our priceless Football Federation, firstly, has given up on the national team in general, and secondly, it has given up on the national team because no one believes in its chances of getting ahead of England and/or Italy - to both of these teams, especially Italy, we lose with the hopelessness of a rabbit when meeting a boa constrictor. The very fact that the acting head coach is managing three teams at the same time without any explanation from the management (and just without explanation!) is so telling that the biggest journalists are quiet in his shadow - everything has already been said for them. Another question is what consequences these "words" will have.

England doesn't have Mount and Rushford, England lost Luke Shaw due to disqualification, but, to our great regret, these losses are not losses, that is, they mean nothing at all. Our team is well equipped in the midfield and on the left side, but the rest of the positions are questionable (by the way, we have already forgotten how Zabarny plays - we can't remember yet), secondly, the ability of the management to optimally allocate resources; and thirdly, there are memories of 0-4 at Euro 2021 - when the British broke our defense with elementary flankers, and their forwards felt free even in the goalkeeper's area. It's unnecessary to talk about the mood, about self-belief - the vast majority wrote off our team for the tournament in general and for this match in particular. Only traditional fan idiocy, which peaks before the starting whistle, allows us to believe in a miracle. As a miracle, we are offered a non-loss by the Ukrainian national team.

Unfortunately, I'm ready to advise you to bet on it only from the point of view that the odds are good - even too good, because I personally do not consider our team to be such a dead outsider. But... But... But...

My bet: in a reasonable way - England with a handicap (-2) at 2.24, but I can't afford it and, in my opinion, I have never allowed it; therefore, I will start from hope - TB 3.0 at 2.18 (TB 2.5 at 1.78 is not a coffer and not a bet)," Frankov said.