Mykola Nesenyuk: "We need at least ten players of a really high class, not mediocrity inflated by advertising"

Well-known journalist Mykola Nesenyuk commented on the defeat of the Ukrainian national team by the Italians (1-2) on his Facebook page.

One hundred years ago, one of the founders of the modern advertising business claimed that with quality advertising, you can sell a dead rat for a profit. This was brought to mind by the hysteria in the Ukrainian media, which, after the draw in the Ukraine-England match, called on our team to win over the Italians. Because they have a crisis, a new coach, injured leaders, and we have a hundred millionaire Mudryk, along with Sudakov, who is chased by the whole of Europe, Matvienko, who Europe is tired of chasing, and other players who are not yet so highly rated. Plus coach Rebrov, who with his talent is able to create a team from a group of mediocre players that can beat the European champions on their home turf.

But the game put everything in its place. Just like a balding young man who has bought expensive medicine for baldness and expects luxurious curls to grow back, our fans, fed by "expert optimists", were sorely disappointed. Because if it wasn't for our luck, the Italians would have scored six or eight goals instead of two. But they didn't, and I'd like to thank our dedicated players for that. But dedication is no substitute for skill, which is much higher than that of Italian players.

Ours could have been even luckier, but so what? Who deserved the right to play in the European final more? The reigning continental champions, who got together and won with confidence, or our team, from which the coach squeezed the maximum. We're not ashamed of our minimal defeat!

You might say that we still have a chance - we just need to beat Italy in November, having previously defeated Malta and FYR Macedonia. But for this we need at least ten players of a really high class, not mediocrity hyped by advertising. We have nowhere to get such players. Because they need to be raised in a high-level championship, not in what we have now. Since we have not started this process yet, we should thank Italy for yesterday's game. For not scoring more than two goals, although they could have. Well, our guys should also be thanked. They did everything they could. Unfortunately, they can only do so much...

Mykola Neseniuk