Former Ukraine national team player Oleh Shelayev shared his impressions of the final play-off match of the Euro-2024 qualifying round Ukraine - Iceland (2:1), following which the Ukrainian national team reached the final part of the European Championship.
- What is the main conclusion that can be drawn after the game between Ukraine and Iceland?
- In Wroclaw, both teams wanted to achieve a winning result. The huge desire to win forced the players of both teams to act cautiously. Before the break we saw a minimum of goal chances. In the second half, the picture on the pitch changed - the Ukrainian national team had a clear advantage and managed to score the necessary two goals.
- Matches with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland were separated by four days. The coaching staff had time to recover players and to prepare for the decisive battle. Were you surprised by three changes in the starting line-up of our national team?
- After a difficult match with Bosnia and Herzegovina our players were criticised, in some places correctly. Journalists and fans are always dissatisfied with something, everyone wants the national team to beat everyone. However, the coaching staff has completely different data about the condition of this or that player. Yaremchuk earned a place in the starting line-up with his performance in Zenica. Tsygankov returned to the squad after the injury, he was being prepared for this match. There are no questions to the coaching staff.
- However, the first half was not very good for us again. Why?
- I think that the Icelandic team is much stronger than the team of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Everyone understood the price of this match and did not take too many risks. The centre of the pitch was full, I can not say that there were a lot of free zones. And having already conceded a goal in the 30th minute of the game, we needed to be more active in the other team's penalty area.
- Everyone knew the strong qualities of Gudmundsson - the leader of the Icelandic national team and Malinovskyi's partner at Genoa, but he scored again. It was impossible to deal with him?
- Boldness and work on the ball helps Gudmundsson. I would not scold our guys for this episode. Give a master a free two metres and he will do everything himself. And so it happened. In this attack of the guests there was a chain of mistakes from our side - Sudakov and Konopolya lost the ball, then Malinovskiy and Brazko slipped.
- By the way, why did our players often fell on the pitch?
- Not only our players, but also our opponents. It can be seen that the drainage at the stadium in Wroclaw was not of the best quality. Pieces of turf were tearing out, and it was noticeable.
- After the game, at the press conference, Sergei Rebrov said that at half-time the players were talking in the locker room in raised tones. At such moments the head coach should not interfere in the squabbles of the players?
- Everything should be in moderation. The guys vented their emotions. The head coach should point out how and what to change in the game, what tactics to choose for the second half.
- What changed in the game of our team in the second half. After all, we played it just great.
- Our players began to meet the opponent higher. If in the first half it was done by 3-4 players, then in the second half it was already done by seven people. In the first half Icelanders easily reached the centre of the field and could further develop their attacks. But in the second half this was no longer the case. It was noticeable how in defence they sat low to their goal.
- However, Viktor Tsygankov scored his goal with a quick counterattack....
- There, on the football field went a kind of swing - the attack of one team was replaced by the attack of the other team. Georgiy Sudakov picked up the ball in the centre of the field and made a long pass to Tsygankov. This goal is entirely the merit of the Girona midfielder. Victor, possessing the ball, forced to play under pressure of the opponent's defender, then he beat another defender and managed to shoot into the far corner of the goal. The Icelandic goalkeeper, as it seemed to me, did not see the moment of our midfielder's shot.
- Did you have a feeling at the score 1:1 that we would kill the opponent?
- I did not. Let's remember that the Icelandic team had two good chances to take the goal - once Lunin saved Lunin, repelling a long-range shot, and then Zabarny's mistake could have been fatal. Here we were forgiven by the visitors' midfielder. And it was the 78th minute of the match. It would have been difficult to win back at such a moment.
- As it turned out, everything was decided by Mudryk's goal. They talk and write a lot about Mikhail in Europe. Does the high transfer fee of 70 million euros put pressure on Mikhail?
- Of course. It is a question of price. They will talk and write about him. Big money prevails over a man. We can simply compare edge midfielders - Tsygankov and Mudryk. And everyone can draw conclusions. Of course, Misha has a lot of strong qualities, it is not without reason that Chelsea bought him for a huge amount of money. But how he will be able to realise himself in Chelsea and the Ukraine national team depends on Mudryk himself.
- Mudryk's goal brought us to the European Championship....
- Up to this point, we will say that Mudryk moved to play in the centre of the field. Vitaliy Mikolenko started to cover the whole left flank. Mikhail could break into the half-flank, could escalate the game in the centre of the field. Not always Mudryk had everything and always succeeded, but in the 84th minute of the meeting the Ukraine national team scored the decisive goal. Sudakov performed everything masterfully - he rolled the ball to Mudryk and our talent hit the unguarded corner of the goal - 2:1.
- Did we deservedly qualify for the European Championship?
- Yes. Everyone noted the quality of our national team before this play-off round. Both Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iceland were within our capabilities.
- For the fourth time in a row we will play at the continental forum...
- Yes. We're used to the European Championships. We needed to get to Germany. Everyone knows what the situation in our country is now. There is a war, but our national team brought joy to all the people of Ukraine. With this victory our national team added positive emotions to our defenders.
- What do you think about the group at Euro 2024, where we will face Belgium, Romania and Slovakia?
- I can't say that it's a comfortable group, but it's not very difficult. On paper, Belgium might be above the other teams in our group. However, they all have ambitions and that's great.
- Surprisingly, the Ukraine national team has never played against the Belgium national team during the period of independence....
- Interesting fact. Belgium now have a change of generations. Azar and Kompany are already enjoying life. Now De Bruyne, Lukaku and Doku are shining. I do not think that Courtois will recover before the Euros, so we will probably not see a duel between Andrei Lunin and Thibaut Courtois on the fields of Germany. But there will be a lot of interesting things there. At this festival of football, the Ukrainian national team will show its trump cards. Therefore, we will be looking forward to mid-June, when the continental forum starts in Germany.