The head coach of the youth national team of Ukraine Ruslan Rotan answered questions from journalists after the match of the 3rd round of the group stage of Euro-2023 (U-21) with Spain (2: 2), which took place yesterday in Bucharest.
Ruslan Rotan. Photo by O. Vasylieva- Congratulations to the team on reaching the quarter-finals! We deserve it. Today's match confirmed that we are on the right track. There is silence in the locker room now, but I told the guys: if two years ago, when we were assembling the team, someone had told us that we would play at least on equal terms with Spain, probably no one would have believed it.
So I congratulate the team on this result, on a good game, which is extremely important to me. We've been going for this for a long time. It was a good match - both for the future and in general. I congratulate my opponents on finishing first in the group, they have a very good team.
We are dedicating our quarter-finals to our soldiers who are at the frontline. We also fought for the whole of Ukraine and showed this result for the whole country, for our soldiers.
- How do you feel when people speak so well of your team and approve of the result of the game?
- First of all, it's very nice that experts speak well of our team and give us many compliments. The guys deserve it. We have been striving for this for two years, when we were going to the final part, trying to improve our game. This is a complete merit of the players.
If you recall the beginning, our journalists said about the team that it was a squad that hadn't won anything, that they were players who would have no future. Perhaps I exaggerated a little, but it was something like that. That's why I am very proud of our guys, who have proved themselves, who strive and work every day to improve their game.
