Famous Ukrainian coach Serhiy Kovalets during a pause in his professional career is now coaching a rather unusual team - the national team of mayors of Ukraine.
Sergey KovaletsAt the same time, Ukrainian mayors recently took part in the European Championship 2024, which was held in Leipzig. The participants of this competition were 16 teams, which fought among themselves for a week. The matches were played in the format of two halves of 30 minutes.
- Ukraine took third place in this tournament, " says Serhiy Kovalets . - The participants were divided into four groups of four teams each. The competition was organised at a high level, quite solid.
In our group we drew with Czech Republic - 3:3, defeated Poland - 1:0 and Slovenia - 4:2. In the quarter-finals our opponent was the hosts, Germany, with whom we played 1:1 in game time and won 5:4 in penalty shootout. Then there was the semi-final, where our team again met with a familiar rival - the Czechs. This time we lost to them with the score 1:3. In the other semi-final pair Romanians beat the Croats 4:1, so in the match for the 3rd place our team played with its loser. We won 4:2, finishing in high spirits. The winner of Euro 2024 was the Czech Mayors' team, which defeated Romania 5:1 in the final.
- What are your impressions of the tournament?
- Of course, it's nice to take such a high place in such a solid company of football nations. Below were such teams as Italy, led by the famous former Roma and national team player Damiano Tommasi (he is now the mayor of Verona), Slovakia, the same Germans. There was also some luck, which is a good thing.
In general, the forum was good, there were a lot of positive emotions. Only positive impressions remained from this performance. It was a great honour for each member of our national team to represent Ukraine in the international arena, and even at such a difficult time for it. Therefore, following the Ukrainian participants of Eurovision-2024, who also took the third place, we made a message to all our national teams, which this year will represent our state at major international tournaments.
Many thanks to the AFU, who are on the front line desperately and heroically doing everything possible to ensure that people are protected.
Vyacheslav Kulchitsky
