The head coach of the Ukraine U-19 national team Dmytro Mykhailenko shared his thoughts on the rivals in Group A of Euro 2024 U-19 - Northern Ireland (host of the competition), Norway and Italy.
Dmitry Mikhailenko- There was no excitement before the draw. Good group, good choice. It may be trite to say that there are no weak teams, but it seems to be the case. The group we got is absolutely normal.
I watched only one team - Italy - when we were preparing for the match against Switzerland. By the way, the Swiss won 1-0. Italy played with a big advantage, but lost. I want to say that you can play with anyone and you can beat anyone.
I have experience: as a fan, I was at the game between the U-17 teams of Italy and Ukraine in Cyprus. The Italians won, but there were no players who were superior to ours. They outplayed us due to tactics, smarter actions in the last 25 metres of the pitch, and played very clearly in their penalty area. But it wasn't a team that had any huge advantage - just ordinary people who pay a lot of attention to tactics.
Will our other opponents play athletic football? Northern Ireland, perhaps. As for Norway, the days when they played such simple football are over. Now they are changing their approach at the youth level - they play combination football, albeit athletic.
We've already played against the Norwegians, and they showed a very decent level. A lot of players there play for leading European clubs, even at a young age. They are now donors to Dutch football, with many players going to Germany and England. I think this is a very worthy opponent," said the coach.
