Volodymyr Sharan: "Stepanenko and Yarmolenko are needed for the national team of Ukraine"

Less than two months are left before the Ukrainian national team starts preparing for the finals of Euro 2024. During this time, its coaching staff will not only have to decide on candidates for participation in the European championship, but also play a series of friendly matches - with Germany, Poland and Moldova. Volodymyr Sharan, a former striker for Dynamo Kyiv, Dnipro, Karpaty, Polyhraftekhnika and the Ukrainian national team, shared his thoughts on the presence of some players in the national team with Sport.ua.

- "We need to strengthen the squad with qualified players, and I think the coaching staff of our national team is well aware of this," says the expert. I believe that we lacked Taras Stepanenko in games with the same Bosnians and Icelanders. And although someone says that he is an age player, and young Volodymyr Brazhko is just progressing, in my opinion, in the support area for such a serious competition as the European Championship, you need an experienced performer. One who has played more than a hundred matches at a high international level. That's exactly what Stepanenko is. I think that Serhii Stanislavovych (Rebrov - ed.) and his coaching staff see, understand and know this.

- What about another veteran, Andrii Yarmolenko, who recently returned to action after a long injury break?

- Yes, he must be at Euro 2024 for sure. It's a no-brainer, and there are no questions about it. Yarmolenko is a very strong player individually. In such a team, it is very important to have a player with such great experience, who is also the leader of the locker room. The national team really needs him. I don't know exactly how long Andriy will be missing, but the main thing is that he is healthy.

There is still time before the start of the European Championship, and I am sure that he will have time to get the necessary playing practice and will help our national team. For 34-year-old Yarmolenko, this tournament could be one of the last in his career, so it's a good chance to prove himself.

- In the last matches played against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland, the Blue and Yellows coaching staff did not always find a place in the starting line-up for players who had long been classified as key players...

- Even on the TV broadcast of the match with the Icelanders, I saw Zinchenko sitting on the bench, worried. And Alexander Zubkov, too. In that game, the Ukrainian coaching staff decided to change the starting line-up slightly compared to the game against the Bosnians, bringing on Ruslan Malynovskyi and Roman Yaremchuk. You can see that there is a team, and the most important thing is that all the guys understand everything well: if the coaches decided to do this, it means that it should be so, not otherwise. After all, they are professionals. And such an atmosphere in the team of our national team is great! Not all teams have this kind of atmosphere. It happens that the stars start to take offence, and then, when they go out on the field, they do a number. Fortunately, this does not happen in the Ukrainian national team, and this is very pleasing. As well as the most important thing - that Ukraine has made it to the continental championship, and now we can sincerely cheer for it at the stadiums of Germany.