Ukraine midfielder Ruslan Malynovskyi shared his expectations for the upcoming match against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the semi-finals of the Euro 2024 play-offs.
Ruslan Malynovskyi. Photo: Getty ImagesThe Blue and Yellows completed their preparatory stage in Marbella and went to an away game against the Bosnians. Ukraine midfielder Ruslan Malinowski shared his thoughts on the eve of the match.
"I finally feel great, because I caught the virus, it was a bit difficult. Now I feel very good. We are preparing for the decisive game. Everyone is in a good mood, we had a training session and worked out some things.
What are we working on? There are phases of defence and attack, standards - we are working on these points. First of all, standards, because they are very important, after them a lot of goals are scored. In recent games, we have seen that opponents conceded goals in this way. Therefore, we need to focus on this.
Are you going to take a penalty? I hope there will be no post-match series. Everyone has to be ready, because it's one game, and anything can happen. The guys were very responsible for the penalty shootout, everyone took a good shot.
Many players of the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina play in great European clubs. We need to give everything on the field, first of all, to be mentally prepared, because the match will be difficult. We need to take the game into our own hands from the first minutes, act very aggressively and quickly, because the Bosnian team is physically very strong. We need to be ready to fight, because winning the game is 50 per cent of success.
Edin Dzeko has a very high individual level. He can score the ball from a half-court shot, he plays very well with his head in the penalty area. He is an extremely dangerous player, so we have to pay attention to this.
We went to Bosnia to acclimatise and prepare for the game. But I think it's much better that it will be cooler there, because it's more pleasant to play in such conditions," Ruslan Malinowski said.
It will be recalled that the semi-final play-off match of the Euro-2024 qualifiers Bosnia and Herzegovina - Ukraine will take place on 21 March in Zenica and will start at 20:45 local time (21:45 in Kyiv).
