Ukraine's youth football team has completed its performances at the 2023 European Championships. In the semi-finals, the Ukrainians lost to Spain 1-5. After the defeat, head coach Ruslan Rotan praised the team's performance.
Ruslan Rotan. Photo: gettyimages.com"We should probably congratulate the Spanish team on their victory. As for us, I think the guys lacked recovery. We didn't say it, we didn't want any excuses, but the game two days later on the third [day], the way we got there, the fact that we sat in some kind of doghouse at the airport - we were detained for five hours, we spent half a day arriving in Bucharest. You probably saw that the guys wanted to, but their legs didn't run. Recovery plays a key role, so it really affected the result. Perhaps today was not our day.
There will always be mistakes. The fact that we did not play tightly... The Spaniards are a very strong team when they have space... We gave it to them. Basically, everything was in our hands, but we need to go back to the fact that there was no recovery. The guys simply could not keep up with fresher opponents - this also played a role," Rotan said.
