Former coach of Dynamo Kyiv and the Ukraine national team Jozsef Szabo told what he expects from the final play-off match of the Euro-2024 qualifying cycle Ukraine vs Iceland, which will be held today in Wroclaw.
József Szabó- The Ukraine national team under my leadership met with Iceland twice - away and at home, and we won both games. But I note that then Icelanders, playing from defence, acted very disciplined and created dangerous moments at our goal with the help of counterattacks. This is a physically prepared team.
To put it simply, I have very good impressions of Iceland in those years. Recently I watched the game of Icelanders with the Israeli national team and... I saw the same Icelandic team. Discipline, insurance, charging for the ball, well-organised counterattacks, playing from defence as before - all this is present now.
In my opinion, in the upcoming game against Iceland, we need a tough midfielder who can contain and destroy the opponent's attacks, as well as able to give a timely pass to the offensive line. Of course, we need the support of our colleagues in the midfield.
I think that Sergei Rebrov made conclusions after the game with Bosnia, and will be able to adjust his charges to team play, because it will be far from easy to overcome the opponent's defence, as well as to contain the Icelanders' counterattacks. We need to be very careful in defence. Most likely, we will see some changes in the starting line-up of the Ukraine national team. I would like to wish our team a good game and, of course, to become participants of the final stage of the UEFA EURO 2024.
