Legendary Ukrainian coach Vitaliy Kvartsyanyi has given his assessment of Ukraine's opponents in the Euro 2024 group - the national teams of Belgium, Slovakia and Romania.
- When preparing for the European Championship, our team should take into account many peculiarities of the opponents' game. I will start with Romania, which has always been an unyielding team. Even considering the old times, when such stars as Florea Dumitrake, Gheorghe Hadji, Marius Lacătuş, Florin Reducoiu, Dan Petrescu and others played brilliantly. They were harmonious players for their national team: they could handle the ball perfectly and were athletes. All were characterised by power and high skill. At one time, Steaua Bucharest, in which the above-mentioned Lăkătuş successfully played, won the Champions Cup. It was in 1986 - by the way, five days after Dynamo Kyiv won another honourable trophy - the Cup Winners' Cup. What can be said, it was a masterful generation!
However, good football qualities inherent in the Romanian nation have not disappeared, because they have them in their genes. I can say this with confidence, because I had quite a few Romanians playing in Volyn. All of them are qualified and talented players.
- What do you think about the Slovakian national team?
- This team is more forceful, athletic. However, it has players who still look good in other components of football against the background of their power. I have always believed that if a team has a polished speed technique, these players are very strong. Against them it is difficult to win the upper battle, which we lose in the centre of the pitch.
With the Slovaks it will be difficult in other game episodes. For example, you beat your opponent and start to break away, but one or another player of the Slovakian national team only needs to accelerate a few steps to catch up, knock the ball away or put the body. Therefore, there can be no easy game with this team. There are enough qualified performers in their line-up - Juraj Kucka, Stanislav Lobotka, Robert Mak. All of them have gained experience in performances abroad.
- Everyone calls the Belgium national team the favourite of the group. Is it really so strong now?
- The Belgians are a kind of symbiosis of our other two rivals - Romanians and Slovaks. The current generation of the Belgian national team is changing a bit. There are new players, and it is no longer the same pleiad that was before, when the Belgian national team was the leading team in Europe - I mean Thibaut Courtois, Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne, Axel Witsel. All of them are in their thirties. Belgium took the first place in their qualifying group, being in the lead throughout the tournament.
- How do you see the chances of the Ukrainian national team in the rivalry with the above-mentioned teams at Euro-2024?
- The higher in class the opponent is, the more tuned and motivated the Ukraine national team is. In games with such teams our team does not look like a whipping boy. And if Rebrov's charges manage to increase their experience in friendly matches with Germany, Poland and Moldova, which they will play in June, it will be very important before the start of Euro-2024. It is in these games that the coaching staff can try to test this or that tactic. And even if our national team loses in a certain match, it is not so important. Its rating will not be spoilt, but it will be useful and a ground for reflection. Therefore, there is hope that this rating will improve in the official matches of the European championship.
I think that a kind of litmus test of the capabilities of the Ukrainian national team can be its last match with Italy. We played confidently enough with this team, and its players were afraid of us. At the end of the match Ukraine so drove the Italians that they kicked the ball wherever they wanted.
One had to look at the face of their coach Luciano Spalletti to understand: the man was under such stress that he probably regretted leaving Napoli. If Italy had lost to Ukraine then, apparently his portraits would have been burnt. (Laughs). We all remember how the referee did not give a penalty for an obvious offence in the penalty area on Mykhailo Mudryk. Nevertheless, our guys from the national team - well done, with victories in two play-off qualification games over the Bosnians and Icelanders proved that they deserved to play at the continental championship. We wish Ukraine to perform as well as possible.