Head coach of Lviv Karpaty Myron Markevych shared his impressions of the semi-final play-off match of the Euro 2024 qualifying round between the national teams of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine (1:2).
Myron Markevych. Photo — fckarpaty.org.ua- All's well that ends well... Our team's performance in Zenica was unimpressive, but when it seemed that there was no hope for salvation, we managed to reach a turning point.
- What prevented our team from demonstrating its best qualities from the start?
- I had the impression that the Bosnians' 3-5-2 tactical formation was somewhat unexpected for the visitors, when they managed to neutralise Artem Dovbik, who was put forward at the cutting edge of the attack. It is fair to say that his partners did not help him much. Of course, if the Ukrainians had more aggressive wings, it would have been easier to find vulnerabilities in the hosts' redoubts. However, our edge midfielders were rather passive, lacking creativity for Oleksandr Zinchenko and Georgiy Sudakov.
The least of all claims to Vladimir Brazhko, who, as for his debut, successfully replaced Taras Stepanenko at the position of the supporting midfielder.
- What helped to intercept the initiative?
- We had to save the situation and manager Serhiy Rebrov made the right substitutions, switching to the game with two strikers. I do not understand why the hosts did not react to these changes, because they should have used a fourth defender. But that's their problem, because they were not blameless at the other team's goal. However, then Roman Yaremchuk would not have been able to become the hero of the game, scoring a goal and an assist.
- Ahead is the decisive match for the right to play at the European forum in Germany in the summer - with the Icelanders.
- The class of the Ukrainian national team is higher. I hope that Viktor Tsygankov, who was missing yesterday, will play in Wroclaw. There is one step left. We can not miss this chance.
