On Monday, 20 November, in Leverkusen, the Ukrainian national team will play a Euro 2024 qualifying match against the Italians. Former national team player Andriy Polunin shared his expectations of the upcoming clash in Germany:
Andrei Polunin- For me, the Italian national team has always been identified with an impenetrable defence. I thought that when the Scuadra Adzurra scored first, it was almost impossible to get back into the game. You can't say that about the current Italian national team. It demonstrates less pragmatic football, perhaps this is due to the fact that the new helmsman Luciano Spalletti for various reasons has to trust more to young performers who are honed on offensive operations.
- What style of the Italian national team do you prefer?
- The one led by Roberto Mancini in his first years in charge. Back then, the Scuadra Adzurri had very strong performers. It is not surprising that the Italians became the strongest in Europe.
- In the first game under Luciano Spalletti, I remember, the Italians could have beaten our national team more convincingly than 2:1.
- Then, indeed, the Ukrainians looked unsure of their abilities. I hope that the right conclusions were drawn from that failure.
- Tomorrow Serhiy Rebrov's wards must win to qualify directly for Euro 2024. Can we expect our guys to play the first number one?
- Hardly. I think that there will be a cautious game on both sides and everything will depend on who will better realise their chances at the other team's goal. Unless a quick goal will influence the course of events on the pitch. The strength of our national team is in experience. I hope that tomorrow Viktor Tsygankov and Artem Dovbik will seize the opportunity and prove that they can become leaders of the main team of the country.
Another of our "trump cards" is the game discipline. This Italian team is a speedy one, there are many individually strong players who know how to get out from under pressure. That's why we need to do our best to minimise the number of mistakes in possession. The Ukrainians also have a lot of mobile players and we should take care to force the opponents to look to the back with a speedy transition from defence to attack.
In my opinion, our boys have a good chance to qualify for Euro 2024 without the knockout rounds.
