Ukraine's national team begins preparations for Euro 2024 qualifiers with England and Italy

The national team of Ukraine has arrived in Trzebnica near Wroclaw, where it will prepare for the Euro 2024 qualifiers against England (9 September) and Italy (12 September).

As has almost always been the case since the start of the full-scale invasion, the blue and yellows started their journey to the training camp at the central railway station. Representatives of the administrative and medical staff and three Dynamo Kyiv players - Oleksandr Karavayev, Heorhii Bushchan and Oleksandr Tymchyk - gathered there. The Kyiv players had just returned from a European Cup trip to Istanbul the day before, so they had a little more than a day to spend with their families. For the guys, it was a real outlet, as they hadn't seen their wives and children for a month due to their busy schedules. The war makes the logistics of international matches extremely difficult: Heorhiy Bushchan shared information about the longest journey Dynamo made during this year's European Cup journey, which lasted 23 hours!

This time, it seems to be not so long, but the chain is still forming. It took 11 hours by train to Przemysl, another hour of passport control upon arrival and an hour by bus to Rzeszów airport, from where the flight to Wroclaw was scheduled for 11 a.m. local time. By the way, six Shakhtar players were already waiting for the boys at the airport, having arrived in Rzeszow the day before by minibus after the UPL match against Minaj in Uzhhorod. The Pitmen's six included the national team's debutant Yevhor Nazarina, who was inspired by the call-up.

"It is the dream of every footballer to join the national team, so it is a great honour and pride for me to be in the national team! I have always believed that I would get a call-up, so I will do everything in my power to use this chance," said Yegor confidently in his first interview with the national team.

The flight from Rzeszów to Wroclaw lasted 45 minutes, and it took another half an hour to get to the hotel in the Wroclaw suburb of Trzebnica. Thus, although not 23, but 18 hours will accumulate. Otherwise, under the current circumstances, it is simply impossible to come from Kyiv to a training camp abroad.

However, the most important thing for the team was to reach their final destination, where they would stay for a whole week. The hotel was already waiting for six speakers who had arrived on a flight from Warsaw a little earlier: Andriy Yarmolenko, Serhiy Sydorchuk, Vitaliy Buyalsky, Mykola Shaparenko, Denys Popov and Vladyslav Vanat. In the afternoon, the group was joined by Anatolii Trubin, a newly minted player of Portuguese side Benfica.

In the evening, Roman Yaremchuk, Vitaliy Mykolenko, Ilya Zabarnyi and Mykhailo Mudryk will arrive at the national team's location. Andrii Lunin, Viktor Tsygankov, Artem Dovbyk, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Bohdan Mykhailichenko will join the national team tomorrow, 4 September. The last to arrive will be Serhii Kryvtsov, whose Inter Miami will play in MLS on Monday at 5am Kyiv time.

But tonight, head coach Serhii Rebrov and his assistants will hold their first training session. The session will start at 17:45 local time at the local club's football centre.