Thehead coach of the Ukraine U-19 national team Dmytro Mykhailenko summed up his team's triumphant performance in the second stage of theU-19 Euro 2024qualifiers . It will be recalled that the Blue and Yellows reached the final part of the tournament.
- Dmytro Stanislavovych, let's be brief but frank: did you expect such a spectacular result in the second stage of qualification for Euro 2024 (U-19)?
- Did we expect such a spectacular performance, as you said? Yes. As soon as we arrived in Skopje, we agreed with the guys that we came not just to play football, take part in the tournament, but to win and get a ticket to Euro 2024. Of course, it could not have turned out as well as it did, but we believed in ourselves and completed the task.
- Is Dynamo's Matvii Ponomarenko the number one star of this U-19 team?
- If we are talking purely about statistics, then yes. In general, no. Scoring five goals in three games is certainly an excellent indicator. However, Ponomarenko was not the only one to score all three victories for Ukraine. It was a good team performance, and I wouldn't really want to single anyone out. However, of course, there is a group of guys, the "backbone".
Our goalkeeper Vladyslav Krapyvtsov (Dnipro-1) played three matches with zero saves. Thanks to his efforts, Ukraine became the only team to complete the qualifiers without conceding a goal.
Maksym Melnychenko (Dnipro-1) and Taras Mikhavko (Dynamo), who played in the centre of defence, did well. The Dynamo player stands out for his strength.
Gena Sinchuk (Metalist) deserves a good assessment. He was in the team at the last moment, almost by accident. There was little information about him, but one of my assistants saw him play just a week before we left, called me, I watched a couple of his matches and decided that we should take him. He justified the trust in full. In general, he played actively, scored a beautiful goal against Switzerland.
Shakhtar's Vitya Tsukanov is also on the same level. Yes, he came on as a substitute, but he did everything that was required of him. In general, all the guys are good.
- There were, and still are, rumours on the net that Ponomarenko was being watched in North Macedonia by scouts from Spanish Sevilla. Did you see any suspicious men with notebooks and tablets?
- Did I see any scouts? No. I didn't notice anyone. It seems to me that this information about Sevilla's interest in Ponomarenko is an exaggeration. Perhaps there is some interest in Ponomarenko somewhere, perhaps he was viewed somewhere. Given the technology, there is not much need for scouts to watch the game live now. There are broadcasts on YouTube, for example. You can also watch it in the matches of Dynamo's youth team. It's not a problem.
- From the outside, first of all, in terms of anthropometry, Matvey Ponomarenko is somewhat similar to Artem Dovbyk. And the style of play is somewhat similar, in my opinion. Do you agree?
- No, I don't. They are different. If we're talking purely about anthropometry, we can take any guy with a height of 190 centimetres and say that he looks like Artem Dovbyk. (Smiles). But if we're talking about the way they play, Ponomarenko and Dovbyk are completely different players.
- Ponomarenko is still souring in Dynamo's youth team, and this is despite the fact that there is almost a problem with forwards in the main, adult team of Kyiv. There is Vanat and Vladyslav's partners like Benito. Shouldn't Oleksandr Shovkovskyi give Ponomarenko a chance after his performances in the second qualifying tournament for Ukraine U-19?
- Ponomarenko has already had a chance at Dynamo.
- Three minutes in the game against Shakhtar Donetsk...
- He was at the training camp with the senior team, which is much more important. I think that after that Shovkovskyi has the most complete information about Ponomarenko, that is, he understands his potential. As soon as Shovkovskyi realises that Ponomarenko is really ready, he will give him a chance at Dynamo. And not for three minutes.
- Is he ready to play for Dynamo, in your opinion?
- It's hard for me to say. Ponomarenko needs to play at least three to five matches for the senior team to understand this. Mentally, he is ready. But psychology alone is not enough. Matvii needs to be physically ready as well, because playing in the UPL and the youth championship are different tournaments in terms of intensity.
There were a lot of U-19 players of this age category who became, for example, European champions, and then at the stage of transition to adult football they got lost, did not achieve much. A young player needs to spend at least a season at a stable level for an adult team, then you can already predict what will happen to him.
We shouldn't rush to make any assessments for Ponomarenko and his future adult career.
- I did not use the word "sour" in reference to Ponomarenko's stay with Dynamo's youth team for nothing, because this is our Ukrainian football mentality. 18 years old is young, 19 years old is still young. 20-21 years old is also forever young. And promising. Sometimes, for example, in Barcelona, 16-year-old Lamin Yamal plays in the Champions League. They trust him.
- Earlier, before the full-scale war, it really happened that they overstayed their welcome. Nowadays, nowhere else can they trust young people as much as they do in Ukrainian clubs.
You mentioned Yamal. He is an exception to the rule. There are still, to be honest, very few players like him.
- But only in Barcelona, in addition to Yamal, plays his age, Pau Kubarsi. At 19, we can't even call Xavi "young and inexperienced" anymore, he has played so much...
- But still, the Ukrainian Premier League is now one of the youngest championships in Europe in terms of the average age of its players.
Let's even look at the Ukraine U-19 national team. A number of the players I work with are already playing in the main squads of their teams. Mikhavko at Dynamo, Sinchuk at Metalist, for example. Earlier, a few years ago, before the war, when there were a lot of legionnaires in the UPL clubs, young people had few chances to break into the first team. Now it's the opposite.
- Is Christian Shevchenko the future of Ukrainian football or just the son of Dynamo legend Andriy Shevchenko?
- First of all, speaking about Christian Shevchenko, I would note that this player has good physical attributes. He is fast, explosive even at times. He also has individual skills. He has potential. And this is a fact. He did not play much in the qualifying tournament, but there are a number of objective reasons for this.
- What are they?
- First of all, we should talk about adaptation. There is no way to play football without communication, and he came to a new team where his communication with teammates was initially at a minimum. Most of our guys do not speak English very well, and Christian speaks Ukrainian or Russian, respectively.
Christian came on as a substitute twice in the games against North Macedonia and Latvia. He would have had time in the match against Switzerland, but he had a small injury, a micro-injury, so I did not release him. Actually, he did not prepare fully for the match against the Swiss.
- Is it true that Christian Shevchenko had a personal interpreter in the national team?
- No, he didn't. There was no interpreter.
- Let's go back to Christian's pedigree. This whole story with his invitation to play for the Ukrainian national team, his acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship in some fantastically short time, which is a very long process, actually somehow makes me look for treason again. That is, that he, Christian Shevchenko, is a protégé of his father, who is also the president of the UAF. Does the Ukrainian national team have a special attitude towards Christian Shevchenko?
- The attitude to Christian in the team is the same as to the rest of the guys. Rather, it is he - Christian Shevchenko - who probably feels pressure in the national team because he is the son of a legend and this somehow affects him. We, the coaches who work with Andriy Shevchenko's son, do not feel any pressure.
I can honestly tell you, he is a really talented kid. He has a Chelsea academy behind him, and now plays in England for a decent club (Watford). I form the national team solely on the basis of sportsmanship, not on surnames and family ties.
In the ten days that Christian Shevchenko was in the camp of the Ukrainian national team, he had already become his own. At the end of it, he was laughing with the guys and joking with them. And at the beginning it was very difficult for him, yes. He couldn't have a conversation to support him, or communicate normally... The most important thing is that he passed this adaptation successfully.
- What about the Euros? Is the task identical to the qualification - only victory and no tourism to the sights of Northern Ireland?
- We don't even know our opponents yet (smiles). I haven't started watching other teams yet. It is clear that we need to aim for victory, but...
- Then let's wait for the draw and talk more substantively.
- That's right.
Viktor Glukhenkyi