Ukraine striker Artem Dovbik in an interview with the official website of UEFA told about the first conclusions from the defeat from Romania (0:3), the strength of the Slovakian national team and the determined intention of the Ukrainian national team to correct the situation in Group "E" of Euro-2024.
Artem DovbikAbout the match with Romania
- It was a very difficult match for us psychologically, because the result was a shock for all the players and for the whole country. I don`t want to justify us somehow, the criticism in our direction is deserved. I just want to apologize to the fans for this game. We have two more matches in which we can improve the situation. Of course, now our psychological state is not the best, but we have repeatedly shown that we can get out of difficult situations.
Before the start of Euro-2024 there were a lot of expectations and talk that this is the best Ukrainian national team in history. But this is a big tournament, which we need to approach, not looking at the situation on paper or "transfermarkets", but to prove everything with our game. As the match against Romania shows, money does not play soccer, and on paper we were the favorites, but things turned out differently.
About the reasons for the defeat
- It is a combination of factors. Of course, the goals are mistakes. Unfortunately, we made three mistakes, which led to conceded goals. More precisely, the Romanians forced us to make these mistakes. We can say that Romania dismantled us very well, and their game plan was very successful. They neutralized our attack. In principle, we kept the ball, but we could not create any serious threat. I think that, first of all, this is the merit of Romania. But I hope that in the next match we will be able to show our best qualities.
About Slovakia's victory over Belgium
- I was not very surprised by the result of the match, because there are no weak teams at such a tournament. Everyone knows how to defend and attack, knows how to act in all phases, so it is very hard to play with any opponent at the national team level now. Again, the result did not surprise, but made the situation in our group even more confusing.
About the Slovak national team
- We watched a little bit of the second half of the match against Belgium. They are a very balanced team, playing well in defense, like Romania. They have very good two central defenders - I as a striker especially looked at that. They played very well against one of the best forwards in the tournament - Romelu Lukaku. The midfielders do a very large amount of rough work in the center of the pitch. So it is a very difficult opponent, and I think it will be more difficult with them than with the Romanians.
About the way in the national team and the famous goal at Euro 2020
- I remember my first call-up to the national team (actually from the double of Dnipro in 2016 - editor's note): I was very nervous and also somewhere did not understand how I could be invited to the national team. But as time showed, there were reasons for that. Maybe they were unknown to me and the fans at the time, but Andriy Shevchenko and his staff made such a choice, and I hope that with my play over the years I have proved that this call was not so random.
The winning goal in the match of 1/8 finals of Euro 2020 against Sweden was really a turning point in my career. That goal gave me confidence and after that my career started to rise.
On high expectations after the 2023/24 season
- Of course, I had a great season at Girona, with whom we achieved a very high result. But now I'm in the national team, and there is much more responsibility here than at the club. The whole country looks at us, and everyone hopes for the national team, so it's very disappointing for such a result against Romania. 0:3 - nobody expected such a result. But only the strong can get up after such a knockdown, and we must show on the field everything that our country expects from us.
