Former Ukraine midfielder Yevhen Levchenko shared his impressions of the match of the 1st round of the 2024/25 Nations League Ukraine vs Albania (1:2).
"To be frank - yes, this result was very surprising, because still I wanted to believe that we with our national team have already passed this stage, when we do not have such moments, when we do not have a clear plan for this game.
And it seems to me that if that plan was there, we couldn't see it. I saw that there were a few times when we burst into the penalty area, but if you look at the whole, when you see that in the 1st half we had almost no shots on goal, and how we acted, it leads to such thoughts that we don't have a clear plan for the game.
But the most disturbing thing is that I don't see such conclusions that our national team should have made after Romania, after Euro 2024. This is my question to all of us, to the players, to the coaches. We need to fully understand that if you step on the rake 2-3 times, it will be a big problem for us in the games with Georgia and Czech Republic.
It seems to me that when Rebrov himself says that he did not see the team on the pitch today, it is a very alarming bell. Maybe we expect too much from the players, who are currently unable to show the kind of soccer we want. Maybe the coach needs to look in the mirror at himself, and the players too. Because if you lose a match and you don't draw conclusions, as it were, it's very disturbing.
Right now it feels like this soccer we're offering is not right for our players. I've always said that if you can't control the ball and get forward, this soccer is not going to lead to positive results. I think we need to rethink a lot of things.
Kabaev's debut? He moved a lot. There were mistakes, but I think it's not too bad. For me it is a normal debut, so without any stones in it," Levchenko said.