Arriving at 7am by train in Przemysl, Poland, the national team delegation passed through passport control and took a bus to the airport in Rzeszow.
In fact, this is a familiar route from Kyiv to the Blue and Yellows' preparatory training camp, with which almost all the national teams are familiar, except for those who play in European clubs. Therefore, for Oleksandr Zinchenko, who had arrived in Ukraine a few days earlier to take part in the United24 platform ambassadors' summit, the train journey was a kind of nostalgic experience, as the last time he travelled by train was 11 years ago. After all, in the comfortable "National Team Carriage", so named by Ukrzaliznytsia, and in the company of his national teammates, any journey is pleasant and comfortable.
The flight from Rzeszow to Nuremberg lasted less than two hours. Bavaria greeted the Ukrainians with light rain. However, the host of the friendly, the German Football Association (DFB), offered to bring a bus to receive the guests at the airport. The offer was gratefully accepted by the national team staff, so the players and staff walked directly from the plane to the vehicle that took the delegation to a hotel in the town of Herzogenaurach, 25 km from Nuremberg.
It is in this small town, known worldwide for the implacable rivalry of the founding brothers of two global sportswear companies, Adi and Rudy Dasler, that the Ukrainian national team will spend the next six days of training.
Almost simultaneously with the main part of the national team, the head coach Serhiy Rebrov and almost all the players of the national team who play in European championships arrived at the hotel for lunch. The night before, Roman Yaremchuk was the first player to arrive, followed by Ruslan Malinowski early this morning. Tomorrow Artem Dovbyk will join the team, and in a few days Andriy Lunin will follow.
Today, the blue and yellows are planning to hold their first training session at the training camp at the club stadium of SC Eltersdorf, an amateur club that plays in the Bayern League, the second strongest division in Bavaria.
The Ukrainian national team begins preparations for the final tournament today, 30 May. On 3 June in Nuremberg, Germany, our team will play a friendly match with the hosts of Euro 2024. The next day, the blue and yellows will fly to Warsaw. In the capital of the neighbouring country, the Ukrainians will play the next preparatory and at the same time friendly match against Poland on 7 June. The final game of the pre-tournament training camp will be a meeting with the national team of Moldova on 11 June in Chisinau.
The next day, on 12 June, the national team will arrive at the place of permanent deployment for Euro 2024 - the city of Wiesbaden.