Ukraine's U-19 national team defeated their Latvian counterparts 3-0 in the Euro 2024 qualifiers. Now our team is ranked first after two rounds. Ahead is a decisive game against Switzerland, which will take place on Tuesday, 26 March, at 15:00. Head coach Dmytro Mykhailenko spoke about the adaptation of Christian Shevchenko and Danylo Krevsun, explained why Matviy Ponomarenko attracts media attention and admitted how his team is preparing for the decisive match.
Dmitry Mikhailenko- You defeated Latvia 3-0. After two matches, our team is in first place. But the Swiss also have 6 points, but a slightly worse goal difference. Everything will be decided in a head-to-head game. Tell us about your preparations for this match.
- Preparations for the final match have already begun. They have a very skilled team, and my coaching staff and I are considering all options for playing them. The Swiss have very bright performers in some positions. In this short time we have, we have to study this team thoroughly. We have to understand how to make sure that they cannot create many chances at our goal. Our players need to understand how to create problems for them, get into attacking positions and score goals.
- Matviy Ponomarenko is showing his worth and scoring. The media write that foreign clubs are watching the Ukrainian. He is very young, can this somehow affect his game?
- Of course, when you create chances and score three goals in two games, it will attract media attention. It seems to me that such rumours and news are a certain motivation for Matvey. It should push him to be even more successful. It's a positive moment, but he has to deal with it.
- The debuts of Christian Shevchenko and Danylo Krevsun also took place a little earlier. They are the most talked about. How did their adaptation go?
- Their adaptation went quite quickly. Krevsun had friends here before, he is a very sociable guy. So was Shevchenko. He is very cheerful. At the moment, Christian is communicating in English with players who also speak this language. There are some of them in the team. He is already one of them. He is mostly friends with the guys who play abroad because they speak English. Yes, it is difficult. It's not one hundred per cent communication, because he doesn't understand Ukrainian. But he still feels at home.
- The media reported that Christian Shevchenko has an interpreter working for him. How do you communicate with him and how true is this?
- No, he doesn't have an interpreter. The coaching staff speaks English, so one of the coaches is always with him when he needs to explain something.
- The goal of the U19 national team is to get to the Euros. Both you and the senior team play on Tuesday. If there are positive results, then our two national teams will qualify for a major tournament on the same day.
- If we get to the Euros, it will be a great success. God willing, our first team will also solve this problem.
- How does working for the youth national team differ from working for a club?
- It's a different profession. In the national team, you pay more attention to the psychological state. It's very difficult to build a game in the short time we have here. We have no more than three training sessions before a match to form a game with or without the ball. But this is not enough. That's why we need to work on positive emotions, on the attitude and on the right psychological state. At the club, there is much more time for other factors. So it's a completely different kind of work.
Nazariy SHMIGIL
