Former Ukraine striker Ivan Getsko told what he expects from the friendly match between Germany and Ukraine, which will be held today in Nuremberg.
Ivan Getsko- I believe that our coaching staff specifically selected sparring partners according to the principle: strong, average and weak (Germany, Poland, Moldova - editor's note), although I personally do not think that the Moldovan national team will be, as they say, a whipping boy. It is with Germany that our manager wants to get exhaustive information about the form of the players who defend the honour of foreign clubs. It will not be an easy task, because for various reasons our foreigners do not have the same playing practice. To compare forwards: Artem Dovbik played in Girona all the time, while Roman Yaremchuk was more often among the substitutes in Valencia.
That is why it will be very important for Sergei Rebrov, who knows well the capabilities of his wards, that our players are in a proper functional condition for the already mentioned game with the Romanians. This is a priority task.
- Do you think that all the best players were included in the Ukrainian national team?
- Yes, because they have been proving for a long time that they deserve to play in Germany. And so I would like to wish them that in the last sparring sessions they were bypassed by injuries and colds. How important this is can be demonstrated by the example of Andrei Lunin, who could not qualify for a place in Real Madrid's goal in the Champions League final because of the flu. Moreover, he has fallen out of the training process and still needs time to be in the necessary playing tone again.
- Then lastly, how do you assess the prospects of the Ukrainian national team at Euro-2024?
- In my opinion, Ukraine has never had such a powerful national team, because in every line there are leaders who can lead the way. And if our main team will approach the calendar matches with Romanians, Slovaks, Belgians in full armour, there will be no problems with getting to the next round.
Andrei Pisarenko
