Former Ukraine midfielder Oleh Shelayev shared his opinion on the Euro 2024 qualifying match between Italy and Ukraine.
Oleg Shelayev- In its history, the Ukrainian national team has never beaten the Italian national team. What do you attribute this to? After all, we defeated the same French or English...
- Let's put it this way: We did not often beat France and England. It is difficult for all national teams to play with Italy. Our yesterday's opponent is a tactically great opponent who always has skilful players. Personally, I have played against the Italian national team twice in my career, and twice our team lost. Italy scored first, and then it became even more difficult to play with them. They give little space to the opponent and blocked all free areas. It was extremely difficult to resist Pirlo, Gattuso, Bonucci. They were stars, but they did not shy away from menial work. And at the same time, the Italians always played well.
- Let's move on to the match in Milan. Today, by European standards, Italy has few world-class stars. I'm talking about those who played against Ukraine. Here we can only mention Donnarumma and Barella. And they still beat us. What do you attribute this to?
- I agree that the Italians have few stars now. Personally, I really like the way Nicolo Zagnolo plays. He has been playing very confidently for several years. What makes his game attractive is that he acts boldly on the football pitch, sometimes impudently. But he is a footballer of the highest level. Now Zagnolo has moved from Galatasaray to Aston Villa. Let's see how he will prove himself in the Premier League, the best league in the world. The rest of the players are of an average level.
The strength of any national team is determined by the average class of most players. It happens that a team has two super great players, and two weak players. So the opponent will hit where it counts. Italy has no weak players in the main team. That is why they are always among the leaders of European and world football.
- Serhii Rebrov made three changes to the starting line-up of the Ukrainian national team compared to the match against England. Is this the right decision?
- The coaching staff always knows what the problems are, who looks like during training. Experienced Kryvtsov played instead of Matvienko, Yaremchuk, who did not play well, was replaced by Dovbyk. And Yarmolenko returned to the starting line-up instead of Mudryk. I think that Serhii Rebrov wanted to use plan B when he replaced Mudryk. With space, Myshko could improve his attacking play. Looking ahead, I will say that he did not succeed in this. Once Mudryk broke into the penalty area, but the ball was easily taken away from him by the defenders, and once again Mykhailo made a cross into the penalty area, where Konoplya hit the ball with his head.
- How do you explain the first goal you conceded? Sudakov fell to the turf, lost the ball, and the hosts were already celebrating success in two seconds.
- No one can explain this. It was a difficult episode for our team and a difficult moment for Sudakov. I think Georgy will be worried for a long time. A few minutes later, Sudakov changed his boots. Everything happened in a fatal place. After all, you must admit that if Sudakov had lost the ball near someone else's penalty area, everyone would have said he slipped. And so...
- Soon the hosts scored again. And again, the goal came out of nowhere, a shot, a ricochet and a shot. The Italians didn't score in the best of situations, but it happened here. Why couldn't you prevent Italy's second goal?
- The hosts' attack was fast. They quickly delivered the ball to our penalty area and it changed direction due to a rebound. At such moments, defenders have to anticipate the situation. It's easier for the strikers, and Fratesi took his chance.
- If you look back at history, the Italian national team almost always wins with a 2-0 lead. So we could not draw, which would have been optimal for us on this day.
- If we look at the whole match, the scoreline was fine. We lost 1-2 in the fight. Looking at the way the hosts started, everyone thought that everything could end worse for us. In the first half, the Ukrainian national team could not stand up to the opponent on equal terms. The performance of our team was sad. It is clear that defeat is defeat, but this is not the worst result. Perhaps the face-to-face meetings between Italy and Ukraine will decide everything in the fight for second place. Every goal is important.
- At the post-match press conference, Serhii Rebrov said that the second match for our national team in three days is always difficult. We didn't have enough strength and so on. Will coaches always say that?
- I am sure that in the future, the second matches in such cycles will be more successful for our national team. With England, I think our players played more aggressively and were charged to fight. It is clear that the English have a margin of victory and it was not critical for them to draw in Wroclaw. The England players felt superior in class and played with confidence. The match against Italy was a different story. Spalletti's men only needed a win, and they were playing at home.
- Why do you think we didn't create a clear goal-scoring chance in the second half?
- At least we started to hit the opposition goal. Let's recall the shots by Dovbyk, Tsygankov, Mudryk, Konoplya and Vanat. Yes, basically these shots did not threaten Donnarumma's goal. In an attack, if there is no skill, everything is decided by the tactics and physical readiness of the players. Usually, Tsygankov or Mudryk made the difference in the attacking line. But not this evening.
- Who do you think was the best player of the Ukrainian national team in Milan?
- The past two games have shown that we did not have enough energy for the second match. With England, a lot of energy and emotions were spent. I have no particular complaints about Konoplya, Mykolenko and Sudakov, despite Georgy's mistake. The other guys looked worse. In Milan, I would single out Konoplya, Bushchan, Sudakov and Dovbyk. Perhaps, the best player should be looked for among these four players.
- Do we still have a chance of winning second place and qualifying for Euro 2024?
- Yes, we do. With the best result, we should beat North Macedonia and Malta in October. I would like England to beat Italy at home on 17 October. Then everything will be decided on 20 November in a head-to-head match between Ukraine and Italy. We cannot lose points in the upcoming games, everyone understands this. Nothing has been decided yet and our fate is in our hands.
