Somehow unnoticed was the news that if the national team of Ukraine can get a ticket to the final play-off of the Euro-2024 selection for the right to enter the European Championship (for this purpose, on 21 March it is necessary to beat Bosnia and Herzegovina away), this match will be held in Wroclaw (26 March) at the stadium "Tarczynski Arena".
Wrocław, Tarczynski Arena, Ukraine vs England match. Photo - A.PopovI believe and I am absolutely sure that this is the most correct and optimal decision. Well, first of all, it was important not to pull the national team again to some new stadium in Europe: it is important that in case of a chance to play in the play-off final, the national team would play such a match in the place where it has already played at least once - such a stadium will be at least a little more familiar to the team than any other.
And it is desirable that it was such a stadium, where the national team of Ukraine played within the current Euro qualification, which can be considered successful in the context of the results of "home" matches (no defeats, draws only with the obvious leaders - monsters of the group - England and Italy, and only one goal conceded).
Accordingly, the selection is as follows (listed in the order of matches):
Trnava (Ukraine - Malta - 1:0)
Wroclaw (Ukraine - England - 1:1)
Prague (Ukraine - North Macedonia - 2:0)
Leverkusen (Ukraine - Italy - 0:0)
I've worked at the last three home matches of the Ukraine national team in the Euro 2024 qualifiers, and I have no hesitation in saying that in terms of fan support and the degree of closeness of the atmosphere to a real home match, Wroclaw is very far behind other cities/stadiums. And I'm sure that if I had also been to the fourth "home" match I didn't attend (Trnava), my statement would now remain unchanged.
Firstly, the stadium in Wroclaw is huge compared to the other cities mentioned. The capacity is 45 thousand spectators, which is one and a half or two times more than the capacity of other stadiums where the Ukrainian national team hosted their opponents this year (Trnava - 19 thousand, Prague - 19 thousand, Leverkusen - 30 thousand).
Secondly, no matter how you look at it, Poland now has the largest number of Ukrainians - there are so many of them there that they can easily fill a 70,000-seat stadium, not to mention a 45,000-seat stadium. And that is why the match Ukraine vs England in Wroclaw, despite the impressive capacity of the stadium, was a real "beat". And the appropriate level of support from the stands with an atmosphere very close to the one in which the national team matches in Lviv took place (the photo attached to this text only partially conveys the energy of the Ukraine vs England match in Wroclaw).
Yes, in Prague and Leverkusen Ukrainians also cheered, but it was absolutely not what was happening in Wroclaw!
Thirdly, UEFA, which should not be shy and paint its logo in the tricolour, has again imposed on the Ukrainian national team a partial ban on the admission of spectators to the stands at the next home match, but, fortunately, this ban is measured by an absolute value ("leave at least 5 thousand seats unfilled in the stands"), not by a share, and therefore the larger the capacity of the stadium, the smaller the effect of these unfilled seats will be. And according to this factor, the stadium in Wroclaw is also a clear favourite.
All in all, it's really great that such a choice has been made. The chance of an almost full-fledged home match for the Ukrainian national team in the context of the atmosphere. It remains a matter of "little" - to pass Bosnia and Herzegovina ...
Alexander POPOV
