The Ukraine national team has returned to the tournament struggle. This is the most important conclusion from yesterday's match against Slovakia. Yes, in their own style, losing the score, yes, with huge problems in defense, but our team achieved a crucial victory.
Serhiy Rebrov showed himself as a man who is ready to admit his mistakes and learn from them. Frankly speaking, there were fears that the same eleven players would come out for Slovakia, so let them prove. And in general, say, everything with Romania was fine, look at the statistics, just two silly mistakes made.
But it did not happen. Rebrov changed four people, and we can only wonder if Lunin is the only one who fell out of the lineup as the culprit of the defeat. Although it was said that Tsygankov got a micro-injury. It is possible, of course, that Stepanenko was given a rest, and Konoplya was saved because of the warning he received. Nevertheless, there were changes in all lines, which affected the game.
The main difference from the match with Romania was that our team began to move the ball faster. Here I think the key was the appearance of Vladimir Brazko in the middle line. Brazko plays in a modern style, has time everywhere: both behind and in front. Brazko's appearance gave Kolya Shaparenko an opportunity to prove himself, because he no longer had to run to help Stepanenko and clean up after him.
The team speed that Ukraine offered was beyond the age of the Slovakian team. Interestingly, the Romanians have better studied our national team and tried not to get involved in the selection of the ball, thus not exhausting themselves The Slovaks, apparently, it seemed that in this game they are the favorites. They decided that they would try to play ahead and take the ball away. The further towards the end of the match, they did it worse and worse.
The beginning of the game, of course, was far from rosy. And here we must say a big thank you to Anatoly Trubin, who gave the team confidence with his saves. Trubin is used to the defensive turmoil that has been going on all season in Benfica, and he understands how he should play, and what mission is assigned to him. Lunin, on the other hand, seems to have become a hostage to the stardom of his partners. It will be hard for him now in any weaker team.
It is important that the conceded goal did not knock us out of our rut. At the beginning of the match it seemed that we continued the game with Romania. And the conceded goal, in which both edge defenders did not finish the game, was quite in line with what happened in that game. So, it is important that we continued to fulfill the coach's plan. And by the middle of the first half, from the moment when the ball after Tymchik's shot hit the goal post, it became clear that at least we would get a draw out of this game. We could have scored the return goal in the first half, but again the questions to Mudryk, and more precisely to Mudryk, who runs, because it seems that at this moment his brain is turned off. By the way, and in the second half, coming out with Yaremchuk almost two-to-one, Mudryk did not open up to receive a pass, and "ran over the soul" of Roma, so that he just left him the ball. In the end, Roma did everything he could - rolled it to him. What other option was there?
And the first mentioned moment of Mudryk happened after a long vertical pass, which unexpectedly began to pass into the offensive line. In the same first half our players managed to get the ball between the lines, and go to the goal without being attacked by anyone. Once again, the midfield played very quickly. This is what is needed. With all due respect to Taras Stepanenko and, by the way, to Serhiy Sidorchuk, their time is running out. We can not afford now, so to speak, a "supporting midfielder". Everyone must be able to act up front. Not without reason Brazko was the leader of Ruslan Rotan's Olympic team and, undoubtedly, its best player.
In the second half, the Slovak national team simply did not come out, deciding to immediately prepare for the match with Romania. The fact is that the Slovaks brought an aging squad, which has no bright players, and the main actors are midfielder Lobotka from Napoli and PSG defender Shkriniar. Without them, it could have been worse. Our team crushed the Slovaks in the second half, and after Shaparenko's goal we could only wait for the winning goal. Perhaps someone has a different impression, but I had the same impression. A little bit more, a little bit more....
And here, of course, we should talk about Mykola Shaparenko. A few years ago, he was considered the most promising Ukrainian player, while Mudryk and Sudakov were not even on the horizon. There is no doubt that Kolya is a master. He may not be good at finishing, but he always feels the rhythm of the game and is certainly tactically competent. They say about such people: intelligent footballer.
That shot, with which he equalized the score, not everyone will be able to do it. To be more precise: not everyone would understand how to hit the goal after Zinchenko's pass. It was the only possible type of shot to hit the goal in that situation. The ball hit the near corner from the goalkeeper, and the keeper could not get it, because it was launched in a twisted way, so it turned away from the goalkeeper to the bar. On the replays, it's like a tennis ball from the world of tennis after a trim. One of the best goals of this Euro, to my taste!
I am not talking about the pass to Yaremchuk. It was really Kolya's day, who by the way, as if standing still, ran as much as 12 kilometers. Yaremchuk, of course, also played great, but still there was a mistake by Newcastle goalkeeper Dubravka. Here you can see the goalkeeper, who, although he defended on zero with Belgium, turned out to be a statistic against Ukraine.
By the way, Roma Yaremchuk's appearance from the first minute also seemed more logical to me. After all, they have played well with Andriy Yarmolenko since the last Euro. In addition, it seems that Dovbik is tired after a busy season, which he spent from match to match. I look at him and I don't see the former lightness, high jump and most importantly sharpness up front. I don't know, maybe he's been studied and is holding up well. Or maybe the Spanish championship in its bulk is not as strong as it seems.
In general, well done for winning. According to the usual scenario, postponing the decision to the second half, starting the fight for the exit from the group with the second match. Everything as usual. Already Rebrov is laughing that he is the first in the world on the matches with a cambeck. And indeed, this Ukraine national team played an abnormal number of matches to win back in the course of the game. Such a "chip", the face of the team. Perhaps a micro-model of the whole state.
Artem ZHOLKOVSKY for Dynamo.kiev.ua
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