Famous journalist Mykola Neseniuk shared his thoughts on the results of the match of the 2nd round of the Nations League 2024/25 Czech Republic - Ukraine (3:2), which took place yesterday in Prague.
Mykola Neseniuk"After Ukraine failed in its first game in the League of Nations, losing to Albania, I wanted to believe that the history of Euro 2024 would repeat itself when, after losing to the Romanians in the first game, our team won the next match against the Slovaks. Moreover, we had to play with the Czechs, whom we had long ago hardly distinguished from the Slovaks, calling them all "Czechoslovaks" together. Our hopes were not unfounded - the Czech Republic had been defeated by Georgia in the first game, so we had to keep up.
But nothing happened. The story of Dusseldorf, where the Ukrainians managed to beat the Slovaks thanks to their determination and good luck, did not happen in Prague. We can say that we were unlucky. That we got some unnecessary goals, that the referee gave us an eleven-meter penalty, that we didn't use several good opportunities to score... Or we can admit that with such a game, Ukraine can continue to rely solely on luck. No luck - no result.
In two games of the League of Nations, we actually saw two different teams - after the defeat by Albania, the starting lineup of the Ukrainian team was renewed by more than half - six players who were not in the starting lineup on Saturday took the field. Has anything changed? Of course! Other players made different mistakes than those who played before. But they still made mistakes, allowing danger to be created near their own goal and conceding goals. I think that we could have just as easily fielded two, three or four other teams of the Ukrainian national team and the result would have been the same.
What's the reason? Either our players are so weak that they lose to the Czechs and Albanians, or the coaches are unable to make a team out of them that can at least not lose to European mid-table sides? It seems that both versions are true. Obviously, we don't have any world-class players at the moment. But they never really existed - Andriy Shevchenko is the exception that proves the rule. Our team sometimes achieved at least something not due to the outstanding skill of the players, but solely due to the organization of the game, which compensated for the lack of skill. Or it did not compensate - then we did not qualify for qualifying tournaments. And when did we qualify? In thirty years of participation in official competitions, Ukraine has made it to the World Cup final tournament only once, in 2006. The other seven attempts were unsuccessful. Ukraine began to qualify for European finals (Euro 2012, where we played as the hosts, does not count) only when the number of participants was increased to 24, after which it became easier to get there than not.
Therefore, nothing terrible happened - our national team under Serhiy Rebrov is playing no worse than under the previous coaches. I would like it to be better, but so far it hasn't worked out. Or not yet," Nesenyuk wrote on his Facebook page.
