Serhii Rebrov's choice of Italy, Ukraine's achievements in Europe, Oleksandr Shovkovskyi's start at the helm of Dynamo, Mircea Lucescu's high-profile performance - there was no shortage of high-profile topics in domestic football last week.
Photo by Alexander PopovWe are going to the European champions
The Ukrainian Championship and European Cups are in full swing, and there is no shortage of attention to the performances of our clubs both on the domestic and international scene. However, in a week's time, the national team of Ukraine will probably play its main match of the year, so preparations for it should be considered the number one topic at the moment.
Next Monday, it will be decided whether our main team will go directly to EURO 2024. And the blue and yellows will be facing not just anyone, but the European champions themselves - the Italians!
On Wednesday, the head coach of the Ukrainian national team Serhii Rebrov announced the list of those called up for the match against Italy, which was lively discussed by our press. Journalists mostly tried to guess why this or that player was among the chosen ones. But it was only a variety of assumptions, as the coaching staff did not discuss these decisions publicly.
Meanwhile, Shakhtar's victory over the Spanish champion certainly added to the good mood of not only the Ukrainian fans, but also Rebrov, as it not only demonstrated the good playing and physical condition of Shakhtar's representatives in the national team, but also gave them a powerful psychological impetus and confidence that even the biggest favourites can be beaten on the football field.
"The culmination was the 40th minute. Sudakov moved the attack from a deadlock to a scoring attack with a perfect diagonal pass. Georgiy passed the ball to the right flank, where Gocholeishvili ran in. The Georgian lifted his head and crossed to the centre, where Sikan won the header and scored in the right corner of the goal. The ending is identical to Kelsey's in the first round match against Porto. Beautiful!
Sikan's third goal in the current Champions League - he is currently among the top ten scorers in the tournament. After the break, Danylo could have made a double, but his dangerous shot from an acute angle was pulled away by Ter Stegen. Perhaps the striker would have scored more if Alonso hadn't injured Sikan's shoulder in a personal battle. Danylo was forced to leave the pitch," journalist Maksym Kucher describes the main events(Ua-football.com, 07.11.23).
"From the first minutes of the game, faced with the fierce pressure and dedication of the opponent, the Spanish champion simply could not rebuild. And Xavi's substitution of four players at once at the beginning of the second half perfectly illustrates Barcelona's inability to accept the pace and rhythm of the game proposed by the opponent," Valeriy Vasylenko said(Sport.ua, 08.11.23).
Observers noted Shakhtar's dedication and discipline in the game, their willingness to play football that was not typical for them, running a lot without the ball and trying to get out of defence through long passes.
"Shakhtar combined occasional pressure with a low-medium block. And even after the slightest attempts at pressure, the whole team sat down in a 4-4-2 positional defence and held their positions in a disciplined manner. Stepanenko, in his trademark style, cleared everything and insured everyone," writes the Football 24 website(Football24.ua, 07.11.23).
And even though most of the media - both Ukrainian and, especially, Spanish - noted Barcelona's obvious crisis, and the Catalans' coach Xavi himself called this match "one of the worst in two years", this does not make Shakhtar's victory any less important. After all, it almost ensured the Ukrainian team's European spring (in the Europa League) and preserved their real chances of competing for the Champions League play-offs.
"Shakhtar played a far from flawless match. There were a lot of nervous mistakes, a lot of lost 'draw' balls. But Barcelona couldn't punish them for it...", states Football 24(Football24.ua, 07.11.23).
However, Shakhtar were not the only ones who were happy with the coaching staff of the national team of Ukraine. A number of our players, who play in the leading European leagues, have been giving us reason to be happy and proud on a regular basis lately.
First and foremost, we are talking about defenders Vitaliy Mykolenko and Ilya Zabarnyi, who are playing well for Everton and Bournemouth in the English Premier League, respectively, as well as the leaders of Girona's attack Artem Dovbyk and Viktor Tsygankov, who are key contributors to the modest club's sensational leadership in the Spanish league.
"Without Dovbyk, the Catalans would definitely not be in the lead. 6 goals and 4 assists make the Ukrainian not only the most productive player in Girona, but also the second best player in La Liga in terms of goal plus assist after Jude Bellingham.
In addition, Dovbyk has a lot of menial work to do. To put his back and receive a pass from Tsygankov; to play with Savio when he flies on the counterattack; to pull defenders on himself when Herrera runs into the penalty area; to get a high ball and make a successful discount - all this is his job," writes journalist Roman Synchuk(Ua-football.com, 11.11.23).
As for Tsygankov, it seems that he has not yet reached his optimum condition, but he still plays a key role in his club. After an extremely successful match against Osasuna, in which the Ukrainian winger scored the winning goal after coming on as a substitute (Dovbyk, by the way, scored a goal and two assists), Tsygankov returned to the Girona squad and played about 80 minutes against Rayo Vallecano.
During this time, Tsygankov managed to score another assist - and it was to Dovbyk, who spent as much time on the pitch as his teammate.
"Mykolenko is in great form: he shut down the top wingers of the Premier League and made critics change their shoes. He isone of the best full-backs in the league in terms of defensive work," says Dmytro Vatras, a columnist for the Ukrainian newspaperTribuna (11.11.23).
"In the current EPL campaign, the Ukrainian has played 7 matches, and even the game with Luton (1-2) can be called bad, when one of the goals from the standard was scored by 'his' player. That evening, Vitali rehabilitated himself - 15 ball returns (personal best of the season), 5 of which were in the other half of the field. In addition: 90% of the fights won, 8 tackles and 4 interceptions.
As of now, Mykolenko is clearly one of the best full-backs in the EPL in terms of defensive work. In terms of interceptions and tackles, he is the best in general. No one closes down the best wingers in the league so often. Over the past 2 months, Vitali has taken on three in turn - Arsenal's Bukayo Saku, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and West Ham's Jerrod Bowen," the author explains(Ua.tribuna.com, 11.11.23).
But it is not only in defence that Mykolenko is distinguished. Despite his role as a defender, he has also scored in the last two matches for Everton. The Saturday before last, his accurate shot brought the Toffees a draw with powerful Brighton, and a week later, the Dynamo Academy graduate scored the fastest goal of the season in the Premier League, hitting the Crystal Palace goal, and then directly contributed to the second goal and helped Everton to an important away victory.
Other leaders of the Ukrainian national team who play in the Premier League have not received such good press recently: Oleksandr Zinchenko and Mykhailo Mudryk, whose positions at Arsenal and Chelsea are not entirely stable. However, they still play an important role in their clubs, get game practice and must come to the national team camp in good condition.
Zinchenko is a model of how to respond to the difficulties that arise in the process of fighting for a place in the first team. After a series of mixed performances, he had a fantastic match against Burnley, scoring an incredible goal, among other things. "Zinchenko was brilliant today - both in attack and defence," Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta summed up the Ukrainian's performance(Ua.tribuna.com, 11.11.23).
Shovkovsky's winning start
Analysing the list of those called up for the national team training camp, the media note that this time only four players from Dynamo Kyiv were on Rebrov's list (and three more were on the reserve list).
Experts are convinced that the unusually low representation of the capital's club, which not so long ago delegated more than a dozen of its players to the national team, is not due to the level and class of Dynamo's players, but solely to their form, which was the result of a slump in play, culminating in the recent resignation of Mircea Lucescu.
No wonder Rebrov, who is well aware of Dynamo Kyiv's role in training personnel for the national and other Ukrainian teams, spoke separately about his hopes for the appointment of Oleksandr Shovkovskyi as acting head coach of the White and Blues.
"Any coach of Dynamo is a very important step. I only wish Oleksandr success and return Dynamo to the level it was at. It all depends on him. I also started like that. We need tostart - and then we'll see, "said the coach of the national team of Ukraine(VZBIRNA, 10.11.23).
It is worth noting that last season Shovkovskyi already acted as the White and Blues' coach when Lucescu was undergoing treatment for quite some time. However, it is no secret that the Romanian specialist still held the main levers in his hands.
Shovkovskyi's debut came in a very difficult match for Dynamo - against Kryvbas, who have recently been playing strongly and leading the UPL before this round. The staffing situation at the capital's club did not help the new coach's mood.
"The acting head coach of Kyiv could not count on a number of important players - first of all, Yarmolenko and Shaparenko, as well as young Voloshyn, who is progressing rapidly this season. In addition,Buyalsky and Andrievsky remained in the reserve after an injury," says columnist Vlad Myrenko(Footclub.com.ua, 12.11.23).
However, despite all the difficulties, Dynamo very confidently took three points in Kryvyi Rih, actually solving all the issues in half an hour of play: in the eighth minute Vladyslav Vanat opened the scoring, in the 12th minute he earned a red card for Kryvbas captain Danylo Beskorovainyi, and in the 27th minute Oleksandr Karavayev set the final score - 2-0.
"Then the game went completely under the dictation of the guests, Kryvbas actually did not even have a chance to get a hold of the ball, the few corner and long shots by the hosts did not pose a particular threat to Dynamo, and the defenders read the attempts to play combinations...
Shovkovsky's team looked convincing, with a clear structure of the game, but let's not forget about the circumstances favourable to Dynamo, in particular - the early removal (fair or not - let the relevant experts assess) in the opponent's camp, after which, under the weather conditions that were in Kryvyi Rih, Yuriy Vernydub could no longer count on the football familiar to his wards," says journalist Yevhen Savchuk(Footboom1.com, 12.11.23).
After the match, representatives of Kryvbas and some media outlets tried to spin the topic of the allegedly controversial sending off, but the arguments in support of this thesis turned out to be much more controversial than the episode itself. In the end, former FIFA referee Miroslav Stupar objectively analysed the situation after the game and recognised the referee's rightness.
"Vanat was going one-on-one, Beskorovainyi acted unintentionally, but he hit Vanat's left leg and he lost his balance and fell over. An obvious foul of the so-called "last hope". Afair red card," he said(Ua-football.com, 12.11.23).
At the same time, even those who doubted the red card for the Kryvbas player agreed that in any case, Dynamo was significantly better in the game.
"A sending-off is a sending-off, but Shovkovskyi's men were in complete control of the situation both before and after that scandalous episode. Now Kyiv have a chance to overtake Kryvbas in terms of lost points, as they are 8 points behind and have played 3 matches less," says commentator Taras Kotiv(Football24.ua, 12.11.23).
This defeat did not allow Kryvbas to return to the top spot in the standings, which was taken by Polissia a little earlier. Moreover, a few hours later, the Zhytomyr club was knocked off the top spot by Dnipro-1, which won a strong-willed victory over Shakhtar 3-1 in a thrilling away match.
"After the historic victory over Barcelona, there was a cold shower in the Ukrainian championship. The livelyand motivated Dnipro-1 played a great match against Shakhtar and inflicted the first defeat in the Ukrainian league on the new head coach of the Pitmen, Marino Pushich," writes journalist Boris Sorokin(Ua-football.com, 12.11.23).
Ukrainian media noted that Shakhtar did not look like the team that had recently defeated Barcelona. The Miners had serious problems when they were unable to play in space and take advantage of individual mistakes by the opposition. And Pushic's attempts to turn the game around with substitutions or tactical adjustments did not work.
"Shakhtar had problems creating chances in positional attacks. When SC defended with large forces, the nominal hosts could not find an approach to the goal. Thesharpness arose in other scenarios - quick attacks after interceptions," emphasises Football 24(Football24.ua, 12.11.23).
Meanwhile, Dnipro-1, which not so long ago looked like a pale shadow of itself last season, has rapidly returned to the cohort of the main contenders for the championship under Yuriy Maksymov's leadership. And this weekend's results show that the fight for gold this season will be extremely intense and unpredictable.
Other aspects of football life
Lucescu responds to Russian provocation. Even after his resignation, the former Dynamo coach continues to be in the media spotlight. Last week, Lucescu's statements in an interview with a Russian publication went viral, but as it turned out later, the most resonant of them were a provocative interpretation by Russian journalists.
"First of all, I would like to say that my last interview was about football, only football, not war and politics. If I had been asked directly about returning to Russia, I would have said that I would never return to a country that breeds evil and starts wars.
I worked here in Kyiv with Dynamo and saw with my own eyes all the horrors of war that Russia brought. I did not leave the team, trained the players under air raid alerts and helped evacuate their families. I experienced it all myself, so what can we talk about returning to Russia?", Lucescu reacted emotionally(Sportarena.com, 10.11.23).
"My main dream now is peace and tranquillity in Ukraine. This is safety for Ukrainians, full stadiums and prosperity for this wonderful country. I don't want to leave Ukraine as an enemy. I was the only foreign coach who did not leave Ukraine during the war, I was with Dynamo and the country all this time.
I want to say it again - I will never return to work in Russia. After what I have seen with my own eyes in Ukraine, this is out of the question. Russia is terrorism, death and pain. This country took away my second home, Donetsk. And it wanted to take away my third - Kyiv.
In my last interview, we talked exclusively about football, and the journalists had already thought of all the other questions and answers - about war and politics - for me. Remember me as a man who loves Ukraine!" he said(Sportarena.com, 10.11.23).
Coaching change at Zorya. Following the Kyiv club, Luhansk's Zorya also changed their coach. After a 1-3 defeat to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the fourth round of the Conference League, Valeriy Kryventsov resigned.
He took over from Nenad Lalatovic on 9 September and managed Zorya in 11 matches in all competitions, with only three wins, three draws and five defeats. At the moment, the duties of Zorya's coach are being performed by Yuriy Koval, a well-known specialist and the club's sporting director.
Orest LELEKA
