Head coach of the Ukraine U-17 national youth team Yuriy Moroz has summarised the results of the team's performance at the European Championship 2024. Recall that at the group stage of the tournament, the Blue and Yellow lost to Serbia (0:1) and the Czech Republic (1:3), beat Cyprus (2:0) and finished in third place in the group, failing to reach the play-offs.
- Of course, we went to Cyprus with ambitious plans, at least winning a trip to the quarter-finals seemed to be a reality. After all, we had the necessary information about the opponents from Serbia, Czech Republic and the hosts, there were no failures in the preparatory process, I had at my disposal almost all the players I wanted to see in the national team, except for 1-2 injured.
- Why, then, did you fail to take one of the two places?
- Underestimation of the opponents is out of the question. There were no problems in terms of attitude. Perhaps, their great desire to perform as well as possible played a cruel joke on their charges. And, as often happens in such cases among young players, this burden of responsibility pressed and led to both individual mistakes and collective miscalculations. That is why the Ukrainians did not take the opportunity to "shoot" at the Euro, limiting themselves to the third place in the group.
Although, I am convinced that by the level of preparation the wards deserved more. It is very disappointing.
- You are also in charge of the youth national team of Ukraine (U-18), do you count on any of the players who played in Cyprus in the near future?
- Of course, I hope that the right conclusions will be drawn from this failure, which will allow the guys to progress in the future.
Andriy Pisarenko
Чим швидше тим краще !!