On Sunday, the Ukrainian national team arrived in Prague via the traditional route, via Przemysl and Rzeszów, where it began preparations for the Euro 2024 qualifiers with Northern Macedonia and Malta. During the trip, Dynamo and national team defender Oleksandr Karavayev spoke about the nearest rivals and the blue and yellows' personnel losses.
Photo: uaf.ua"If you look at the state of affairs in world football now, almost all teams are levelling up. Of course, there are the top 5 teams, but everyone is trying to catch up with them. Even teams from small countries like Liechtenstein, Luxembourg or Malta are raising their level. Their players play in the championships of bigger countries, so their skills are growing. It will be difficult with all the opponents, so we need to tune in to each game as if it were the last.
Our group has such a tournament situation that a lot depends on each match. It's not like you can win two matches and then relax somewhere. We need to win all the matches to get to second place with absolute certainty.
It's a pity that Viktor Tsygankov and Andriy Yarmolenko are not with us at the moment. They are our leaders, so it's a big loss. Viktor scored and gave away in the last matches for Girona. And Yarmolenko scored... But it happened as it happened. Even despite such losses, there is great competition in the national team. For example, Oleksandr Zubkov is in good shape. Nazariy Rusyn will arrive, who can play on any flank or at the forefront of the attack without any problems. As for me, I'm ready to play in any position where the coaching staff sees me.
The absence of leaders even further motivates the other guys. All the best players at the moment, the most prepared and with game practice, come to the national team. All of them can help the team. We have a strong coaching staff that analyses every game. They show us both our matches and those of our opponents. We prepare carefully and understand everything. That is, theoretically and physically we are fully prepared, and on the football pitch we have to demonstrate one hundred per cent concentration to make sure that everything goes as well as possible and that the coaching instructions are implemented," said Alexander Karavayev.
