Ukraine - Belgium - 0:0. Home

So, the Euros are over for us, we are going home having played probably our best match at the tournament. Apparently, this was the original plan - to gain during the group stage. The starting game against Romania was sacrificed, but the sacrifice turned out to be more than originally planned. Although even after the defeat in the first round everything could have been possible, if Belgium had not lost the opening game to Slovakia, which finally confused all the cards.

Sergei Rebrov has already said: what was lost - was lost in the first round. That's the way it is. But, is it only the goalkeeper's fault? I would look at the question more broadly. It seems to me that those players of the national team, who were initially counted on as the main stars, failed in the task of leading the team. Neither Mudryk, nor Tsygankov, nor Dovbik, nor Sudakov demonstrated anything extraordinary on the field. There was not even a hint that they were thinking about this extraordinary and capable of someday, even if not today, to realize it.

Moreover, Tsygankov did not come out for the second match, and Mudryk did not come out for the third. How to understand it? What kind of micro-injuries can take place now? Well, we know about Vita: he is more treated than playing. But Mudrick. Doesn't he have anything to prove? Why not fully healthy Mikolenko came out for 55 minutes, and Mudryk did not? It is clear that Rebrov will not talk about it, it is inside the team. Perhaps, Mudryk himself said that he was not ready. But even such honesty (if there was a conversation) is perplexing.

On Belgium, in the absence of flanks, Rebrov chose the only model that could provide a stable game, in a situation where the Belgians do not necessarily win. Oleksandr Svatok's repeatedly tested output as a personalizer under the opponent's main forward again justified itself. Svatok did not let Lukaku breathe, almost shutting him out of the game.

A duo of forwards Yaremchuk - Dovbik appeared in the attack. The option that became the winning one in the match against Bosnia, in the last minutes of that game. Despite the fact that they created enough scoring chances, it seemed to me that it was still a fire option. Yaremchuk and Dovbik are similar forwards, they play in a similar manner. It turned out that there was not enough space for both of them in the attack. They couldn't play for each other either. Discounts to the midfielders also often failed because the midfielders themselves did not have time to get forward.

The middle line represented by Brazhko, Shaparenko and Sudakov had a heavy burden to neutralize the opponent's midfield, and I would say that they coped with this task. With colossal efforts, of course, so we had to change two players long before the end of the match, but they coped. Of course, to the detriment of the attack. It was hard to demand from Shaparenko and Sudakov, who had just fought off the Belgian offense, to be on the rebound after a rebound from one of the forwards.

But, I repeat, there were still chances. Both in the first half and, strangely enough, in the second half, when Malinovskiy, who came on, added momentum up front. The reason why they were not realized at the very end of the match should be asked to those who did not realize them. The general tendency is that our players keep looking at the ball, not at where it should fly. This allows the opponent to adjust and block the shot. The best moment was missed by Sudakov at the very end of the game, when he was in a dangerous position and rolled the ball into the hands of the goalkeeper. Well, two strikes of Malinovskiy: cunning from a corner kick and straightforward from a deadly favorite position did not reach the goal, and could well become the winning one.

Nevertheless, I would like to dissuade everyone from shrinking their heads in ashes. The Ukrainian team played a very decent match against another top team. It can already be stated that Rebrov knows how to build a game against a vastly superior opponent in such a way as to deprive him of his trump cards. Yes, Belgium was satisfied with a draw, but, agree, this is not the match of Georgia against Portugal, which not only solved all the issues in the first two rounds, but entered the playoffs from the first place. We played with dignity against a motivated opponent. We played without two of our best (at least on paper) offensive players. Now we are ahead of the World Cup, which after 20 years we would like to qualify for. As soon as Rebrov was appointed head coach, I wrote that even to the detriment of the Euros it was worth preparing the team for the world. It turned out not to the detriment. I think this championship will teach the players a lot, and some of them, so to speak, will reset the price tag, fixing it at adequate figures.

We are going home. Having scored as many points as our group rivals, but conceded more. With the sign "The best generation in history", which for some reason was put on this team by people who do not know the history of soccer, in particular, Ukrainian soccer. We are leaving the holiday, at which we were not that we were strangers. We came with a mission to show that soccer in Ukraine is alive despite everything and will live, and the country exists and will exist. The task to convey this message has been fulfilled.

Artem ZHOLKOVSKY for Dynamo.kiev.ua