Former head coach of the Ukraine national team Jozsef Szabo shared his opinion on the match of the Euro-2024 qualifying cycle Ukraine vs England (1:1).
József Szabó- I was rooting for our team and I am glad that we managed to achieve an honourable result against the English - a draw, - Jozsef Jozsefowicz starts his commentary with clearly positive emotions. - The Ukraine national team did it due to the tremendous game discipline on the pitch. Both in the middle line and in defence. Our players insured each other, everything was normal. And our goalkeeper played great. The guys worked very well - so well that they may not come back until 12 September, for the match with the Italians. They did everything they could, and I did not see the English having really 100 per cent chances. So our players - well done, well done and well done again! They earned one point, which is worth a lot.
- Many coaches believe that having a redhead in the squad is a good luck. But in the game against England there were two of them at once - Efim Konoplya and Viktor Tsygankov.
- Tsygankov was weak in the Wroclaw match. Did he do anything special throughout the game, except for taking part in the goal combination? No. Perhaps it is explained by the fact that in the Spanish championship he plays every match for Girona, so he spent a lot of energy. And Mudryk - that's nothing at all! Where is his speed? In the first half, he stood there and only received the ball once or twice. And you have to look for it yourself! Take it, go to the middle, ask for it here, then back - and make a dash forward. Then stop, bounce back again and get that ball! But no - it stands there like a post.
- Perhaps the reason for this is that Michael Mudryk is not doing as well as he would like in the APL....
- He won't play! Yes, he has speed, but are we going to run 100 metres? Remember the episode that happened five minutes before the end of the match. They gave him the ball on the free space, he rushed - and... the defender "covered" him. But it would have been more correct for Mudryk to do it differently: stop, start, rush to the right, then to the left. Make it so that the defender couldn't tackle him. And our player ran until he fell down. And Yaremchuk? He, however, is not in shape, because he hasn`t had game practice for a long time. So I do not even know why Serhiy Rebrov put him in the starting line-up.
- Do you think it would have been better to put Artem Dovbik in the starting lineup?
- I think so. Yaremchuk is a normal footballer, but he hasn`t played for a long time. He sat on the bench in Benfica, then he was given to Brugge, where he also did not play. And just recently he found himself in the third team - Valencia. While he is travelling back and forth, he does not get any game practice. And here we need to go out and play against such powerful opponents as England and Italy... I think that Rebrov will make certain substitutions with Italy compared to the game against the English national team. The guys were tired after it, and some of them were quite weak.
- Let's hope that in the match with Italy the Ukrainian national team will also manage to achieve a positive result....
- Italy is a completely different team. More technical. Moreover, the game will be played on its field. However, let's see how it will be. First of all, as I have already said, our players need to recover from the game with England. It is clear that it will be hard, because we will have to play with the Italians in two days on the third. We should also take into account the flight from Poland to Italy. Nevertheless, let's hope.
Vyacheslav KULCHITSKY
