The Ukraine national team (U-19) continues to fight for access to the final tournament of Euro 2024. According to the results of the elite round draw, our boys born in 2005 or older got into the 7th qualifying group. Their opponents were the national teams of Switzerland, Northern Macedonia and Latvia. The matches of this quartet will be held in Skopje.
Photo — uaf.uaOn 20 March, our team will meet the national team of Northern Macedonia, on 23rd its opponents will be peers from Latvia, and on 26th - the team of Switzerland. The winners of the seven groups of this elite round will join the Northern Ireland national team - in this country from 15 to 28 July, the final stage of Euro 2024 will be held, the results of which will determine the representatives of Europe at the World Cup 2025 (U-20).
Our national team is headed by a new coach - Oleh Kuznetsov has been replaced by Dmytro Mykhailenko, former multiple champion of Ukraine, winner of the Cup of Ukraine as part of Dynamo, a player of the national team. In recent years he worked in Cyprus.
It should be noted that to participate in the elite round, the coach of the Yellow-Blues also called five Dynamo representatives, including those with the experience of playing in the Premier League. These are defenders Oleksiy Gusev, Taras Mikhavko, Nazar Balaba, midfielder Andriy Matkevich and striker Matvei Ponomarenko.
In March, the youth national team of Ukraine will also continue its performance in the qualifying tournament of Euro 2025 (U21). Our team plays in Group F, in which its opponents are the national teams of England, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg and Northern Ireland. Our team had a successful first round - it has 15 points, three more than England. Naturally, we want to continue successfully.
The winners of the nine qualifying groups and the three second-placed teams with the highest number of points will get direct access to the final tournament, after which they will be joined by three more teams from the second-placed teams that will win the play-off tournament. The 15 participants will be joined by Slovakia, the host country of the U-21 Euro 2025 finals.
The Ukraine national team is led by the 47-year-old experienced Spanish coach Unai Melgosa. He has worked at Athletic (Bilbao), Malaga, at Dynamo Kyiv with the U-19 team, together with Serhiy Rebrov at Ferencvaros and Al Ain. For the matches of his national team he attracted players from 16 clubs, three of which were foreign. Kyiv Dynamo were represented by Ruslan Nesheret, Konstantin Vivcharenko, Volodymyr Brazhko, Nazar Voloshyn, Vladyslav Vanat. We wish the guys of our national team success.
The 12th coach of the youth national team
Spaniard Unai Melgosa is the 12th head coach in the history of the youth national team of Ukraine. In different years our youth team was headed by 11 coaches, who played different number of matches with the team.
Pavlo Yakovenko (2002-2004, 2008-2012, 51 matches), Serhiy Kovalets (2013-2015, 47), Ruslan Rotan (2019-2023, 47), Oleksiy Mykhailichenko (2004-2007, 41), Oleksandr Holovko (2015-2018, 25), Volodymyr Onishchenko (1999-2001, 21), Volodymyr Muntean (1992-1994, 2008, 20), Viktor Kolotov (1995-1996, 1998-1999, 19), Oleksandr Ishchenko (1996-1997, 11), Anatoliy Kroshchenko (2001-2002, 10), Gennadiy Litovchenko (2003-2004, 2).
Ruslan Rotan, the 11th coach of the youth national team of the previous convocation, successfully performed with his charges at Euro-2023. His friendly team gave football Ukraine a ticket to the Olympics-2024 in Paris for the first time. And for this we thank them!
Oleksandr LIPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua
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