On Friday, September 8, the youth national team of Ukraine, which is preparing to start in the Euro 2025 (U-21) qualifiers, met in a sparring match with peers from Germany.
Friendly match
GERMANY (U-21) - UKRAINE (U-21) - 2 : 0 (0: 0)
Goals: Beyer (53), Lemperle (88).
Germany (U-21): Urbig, Kleine-Beckel (Wagner, 46), Hechter (Riedel, 46), Schmidt (Arrey-Mbi, 46), Knauff (Lemperle, 46), Martel (c) (Breithaupt, 46), Brown (Rothe, 46), Röhl (Siebert, 46), Gruda (Voltemade, 46), Beyer (Nebel, 56), Mukoko (Tresoldi, 56).
Ukraine (U-21): Neshcheret (Fesyun, 46), Roman (Skorko, 46), Salyuk (Bol, 46), Batagov (Slyubyk, 61), Smolyakov (Buleza, 46), Sigeev (Yarmolyuk, 46), Brazhko (c) (Pavlyuk, 66), Losenko (Rubchynskyi, 46), Teslyuk (Kvasnytsia, 46), Viunnyk (Krasnopir, 46), Voloshyn (Bragaru, 46).
The game took place at the Ludwigsparkstadion in Saarbrücken and was Unai Melgosa's first as head coach of the Ukrainian youth team. It should be noted that the Spanish specialist took charge of the renewed youth team, which includes players born in 2002 and younger.
At the beginning of the match, the guests controlled the ball well, but eventually the Germans seized the initiative. The first dangerous moment was created by Knauff, who moved from the flank and shot into Nescheret's hands. Subsequently, Sigeev blocked Mukoko's shot at the last minute, and Kleine-Beckel and Röhl also scored with their attempts. Shortly before the break, after a flanker, Beyer got ahead of Nescheret but missed, and later Knauff also shot over the bar.
Our team could not bring it to an accentuated shot on goal. We can only recall Voloshin's lunge, which was prevented by his counterpart, as well as Brazhko's discount after a corner, which was not responded to by his partners.
During the break, the coaches of both teams almost completely changed their line-ups. The Ukrainians made several good attacks, but without finishing. Instead, the Germans opened the scoring in the 53rd minute - Voltemade intercepted the ball and passed it to the penalty area to Beyer, who scored past Fesyun.
Subsequently, the hosts earned a dangerous free kick, but Nebel shot wide of the target. In turn, the blue and yellows had a hard time playing in the other half of the field. Although in the 69th minute Rubchynskyi scored dangerously from the half-circle after a counterattack, and later he tested the goalkeeper with a long shot.
In the 88th minute, the Germans responded with a shot by Tresoldi, which Fesyun dealt with. However, a moment later, the hosts intercepted the ball in the centre of the field, Lemperle broke into the penalty area and managed to double his team's advantage. As a result, the Ukrainian national team lost 0: 2.
Now the Blue and Yellows will play a Euro 2025 (U-21) qualifying game against Northern Ireland on 12 September in Slovakia.