Jozsef Szabo: "Slovakia is fighting for the result, and the Ukrainian national team needs to come down to earth"

Former Dynamo head coach Jozsef Szabo shared his opinion on the chances of Ukraine's national team to advance from the group for Euro 2024.

"Our guys can get together and show results, but they have to understand that they need to work from and to. Otherwise, the result will not be achieved. Look at how Slovakia plays. 10 players attack and 10 defend. This is a team that fights for the result. I think if the players get together, if Rebrov makes changes to the lineup and explains the importance of giving their all, then everything will work out.

You can play with Belgium, Slovakia has already proved it to us. They came out and showed their class, while Belgium was absolutely nothing. Yes, there are questions about Lukaku's second canceled goal, it seemed there was no offside, but that's not the point. The game with Belgium will definitely be difficult, but we can beat them if we are focused. The main thing is to come down to earth. Everyone writes: "Oh, we have such a Mudryk, such a Sudakov, such a Tsygankov," but where were they during the last match? We just need to come down to earth and realize that the players are just like everyone else. We have to go out on the field, get ready and do our job properly, not like this: 'I don't want to defend, I'm only going to attack'. This does not work in modern football. The whole team has to play both defense and offense.

In the last match, our guys were just no good. I don't know what happened to them, I'll have to ask Rebrov about it. Yes, Lunin said after the game that his mistake led to the first goal. But this happens in football, it's not critical. But there was the rest of the team, they were all bad. Mudryk wasn't on the field, Sudakov wasn't there, Tsygankov wasn't there either. Some say that our players were nervous. But no, there was no such thing, they are all in serious clubs and know how to play against such opponents. The national team was well prepared for the matches, so it was something else," Sabo said.