Evgeniy Levchenko: "Trubin pulled us out by the ears. I doubt that after 0:2 or 0:3 we would have returned to such a score"

Former Ukraine midfielder Yevhen Levchenko shared his impressions of yesterday's match of the 2nd round of the group stage of Euro 2024 in Group "E" Slovakia - Ukraine (1:2).

"I think in the first half the players of the Ukraine national team were looking at how to play. They were watching how to defend. Because Slovakia played very well in the first half. If it was not for Trubin, we would not be so happy now. Because after 0:2 or 0:3, I doubt that we would have returned to such a score. So we have to thank Trubin for the fact that he played a very classy match. How he pulled us out by the ears. For me, he along with Yaremchuk are the heroes of the match.

After 30 minutes, I think, we took the initiative a little bit. We started to get more involved, to press more, to move. I think it gave us some confidence. I would not say that we created a lot of chances, but there were a few situations where we could say that everything was not so bad.

In the second half we completely beat the Slovaks. Here we need to thank Rebrov, who did not play two strikers, but released Yaremchuk (instead of Dovbik - ed.). If he screwed up the first moment, he did everything cool in the second, scored such a cool goal - I think it should be recorded as one of the best goals from a technical point of view. Because such a reception of the ball, control - we have to thank him for that.

Two contrasting halves. The first 30 minutes we played unsure. But then we switched on - it shows that we have everything, but we need to get it from deep", - "Tribuna" quotes Levchenko.