Ukraine's youth national team defender Oleksiy Sych shared his expectations for the Euro 2023 semi-final match with Spain.
"There is a little fatigue. I think our doctors and all the staff will do their best to help us recover. For good muscle recovery, you need cold, so we focus on it. The more of it, the faster the muscles recover.
I wouldn't say that the victory over France relaxed us. Yes, there was a moment of euphoria: after all, it was our third match with them, and finally we won, got a ticket to the Olympics. Plus, the semi-finals. But almost immediately we forgot about it. We celebrated for an hour or two - and that was it. Now the focus is on Spain.
The Spanish national team is a very good team. In my opinion, they are one of the strongest passing teams. They have similarities to our game, so it will be interesting. Yes, I'm talking about ball control. We also want to control the whole game. Spain's fast wings? In fact, every team has a strongest side - the wing. The attack of such teams is always good. But our players are not weak either, so we will try to win.
Do you know your opponent from the previous meeting? I don't know if it can be called a plus. In my opinion, in the first match, both the Spanish national team and we had rotations in the line-ups. When we played France, we really knew their strengths and weaknesses, because both they and we were with the main team. But with the Spanish national team, everything was different, so we will see it on the pitch," said Sych.
The Spain vs Ukraine match will take place on Wednesday, 5 July, at 22:00 Kyiv time.