Former Ukraine forward Oleksiy Bielik commented on the Blue and Yellows' 1-2 defeat of Albania in the opening match of the Nations League.
Oleksiy Belik- Let's start with the starting lineup of our national team. Did it surprise you?
- No, it didn't. We knew a few days ago that Mudryk and Dovbyk would not play due to injuries. That's why the coaching staff of our national team entrusted Vladyslav Kabayev and Roman Yaremchuk with a place in the lineup. I think everything is logical here.
- The whole week before this match in Prague, we heard (we are talking about the players of the national team of Ukraine) - we must start a new cycle of matches in a different way, not like we played the first game at the European Championships with Romania. And what did we see?
- Everything is repeating itself, over and over again. I remember when Andriy Shevchenko was the head coach of the Ukrainian national team, our team always played well in the first match, but our guys failed in the second match. Nowadays, we are not successful in the opening matches either at the Euros or in the League of Nations. We need to look for the reason for this in our work. It is clear that it is not easy for Serhii Rebrov - he sees the guys once every one and a half to two months.
Let me talk about the game with Albania. Many considered our team to be a favorite in the confrontation with the Albanians. And we see the deja vu of the match with Romania. I face this at Shakhtar as well. When my players realize that they are the favorites of a particular match, feel superior, they may think that we will score a goal either in the 40th minute or in the 60th minute. But we need to play aggressively from the first minute of the game. Pressure in the other half of the field and aggression are important. We need to make the opponent think that he has no chance of success.
In the Ukraine-Albania match, in the first 30-40 minutes of the match, we saw football in halftones. The ball was barely moving, there was no aggravation at the other side's goal, and the guests, who played in a low block in the first half, became bolder. Plus, quick attacks began to take place. To be honest: the Albanian national team could already win 2-0 in the first half.
- Under Valerii Lobanovskyi, the players were tasked with scoring a quick goal, we're talking about 15-20 minutes of play...
- I was called up to the national team training camp under Lobanovskyi only a few times. And these were control matches. I won't tell you much about the great coach and his setup. Now we have qualified players in the national team - they don't need to be explained much. But to roll the ball between our defenders in the center of the field... Mykolenko - Matvienko - Zabarny slowly roll the ball between them. Brazhko and Sudakov are right there, not far away, and they often have their backs to the goal. You can only roll the ball like that when you're winning 2-0.
- The second half began with a goal by Yukhym Konoplya and it seemed that we were able to turn the tide of this match...
- Indeed, our players started the second half better. After a flank pass, Konoplya scored in the near corner. I would like to praise Yukhym - this is not the first time he has scored in the national team (he also scored for Northern Macedonia).
However, I want to note that the Albanian national team realized the main thing in the first half - you can play with the Ukrainian national team and count on points. In general, I liked the Albanian national team: they played aggressively, all the guys play in the qualifiers - they meet the opponent quite tough. Our midfielders don't play like that in the qualifiers. I really liked their striker Manaj, for me he was the best player in this match. He looked good against Zabarnyi and against our other defenders.
- With the score 1-2, did you have faith that this match could be saved?
- Yes, of course, we had faith. At first, we conceded a goal after a corner, but the visitors fought in that attack and forced our guys to make a mistake. Then, after a quick counterattack, they scored again. After that, there were 25 minutes left to play, but the guests again stood in a low block. They were counting on the quality play of Aslani and Hodja, who are very fast players who caused us a lot of problems.
As for our national team, as they say the best in history, with such an opponent, without offending the Albanian national team, we need to hit the goal more often (at least 20 shots on goal), XG should be at least 4, 5 rods should be at the opponent's goal, and the opponent should have only 1 moment. Then we could count on success. And after the match I see that the Albanian national team took more shots on goal than the Ukrainian national team (12 vs. 9) and hit the goal more often (5 vs. 3), and their XG numbers are better.
- Many experts and fans did not understand why many veterans were called up for this training camp - Sydorchuk and Stepanenko are sitting on the bench, and Yarmolenko came on as a substitute in the 72nd minute of the match. Wouldn't it have been better to rejuvenate the team with the same players who played at the Olympics?
- Yes, I agree that experienced players are needed both on the field and in the locker room. But we have a lot of them now. And there are a lot of them in the locker room. For any coach, the change of generations is painful, and it is difficult not to call up experienced guys. Serhii Rebrov will come to this anyway. Now only our head coach will answer this question. However, an experienced footballer should help the team on the field, and we don't need so many of them in the locker room.
- How would you comment on Rebrov's quote after the game against Albania? "We had no team on the field"?
- He said that so as not to make long explanations immediately after the final whistle. Serhii Stanislavovych's emotions were overwhelming then.
- In our group of the League of Nations, the Georgian national team beat the Czech Republic 4-1 in Tbilisi . What is happening to the group leaders?
- We have an interesting group. If you're not a fan of any of the four teams in our group, the intrigue will probably keep everyone in suspense until the last round. The main thing is that so far everything is extremely interesting. It is clear that now the Ukrainian national team is only satisfied with a victory against the Czech Republic on September 10. There is not much time, but they have to prepare for the second round match.
