Head coach of the Ukraine youth national team Ruslan Rotan commented on the draw with Spain at Euro 2023.
Ruslan Rotan- I'm a little sad for the team, because they deserved more. But as a coach, I am satisfied with the guys, satisfied with the team's performance. This is probably the most important thing for me now. We have reached the quarter-finals, and tomorrow we will find out our opponent. We will need to approach this match well from a psychological point of view: to feel that we can play with strong teams at least on equal terms. I told the guys that I am sure we are stronger. So we will try to carry this with us throughout the tournament. The most important thing now is to recover and prepare well for this match. We will see after the game what the result will be.
I don't think we have a first team and a reserve somewhere. First and foremost, we are a team, and we are going through this process. Someone plays more, someone plays less. We do one thing, and I am very happy that we have neither a reserve nor a first team. This is the most important thing. Every player is ready to come out, help the team, give their all, and at the same time understand all our tactical schemes.
"Scrapping" centre-backs? I don't even want to say anything bad about the guys for that. We want to start from defence. We made these mistakes and, unfortunately, we are still making them. They are rare, but they happen to us now. If we don't play this football, we will just kick forward and not make mistakes. But we want to play it, so we make mistakes. Those who do not make mistakes are probably only weaklings.
This match was Nazarenko's match. There was a lot of space for him, and he feels very good in this space. But it should be emphasised that the team created this space for him and gave this space to him. I think he should thank the whole team. The whole team deserved this statuette, which was given to Oleksandr. And I'm very happy for Oleksandr, because he works 100%, he strives to understand [the game]. This award is, first and foremost, a recognition for his work, for the way he gives his all on the football pitch, for the way he listens to the instructions.
Perhaps the match against Spain is a test before the quarter-finals. The level of responsibility, the psychological state... We have now passed the group stage, the quarter-finals are ahead, and we must already prepare for them as a team that wants to go further. At the very least. That's why our next step is to be focused and try to make this step as good as possible," Rotan said.
