Former Dynamo goalkeeper Volodymyr Tsytykin, who later worked for a long time with Ukrainian national teams of all ages, told what helped the Ukrainian national team defeat Georgia (1-0) in the 3rd round of the League of Nations:
Photo: Getty Images"This match was not a spectacular one. This can be explained by the fact that the result was of great importance to the opponents: the Georgians were aiming for promotion, and our team, after two consecutive defeats at the start, needed points to at least keep their "registration" in League B. The burden of responsibility put pressure on the opponents, who did not act with an open mind.
I have always held the view that there are no irreplaceable players. The correct decisions of the coaching staff and the quality of the players' performance offset the absence of leaders who dropped out for various reasons. I believe that in Poznan, all of our players tried to contribute to the winning result. Mudryk, the Englishman, did the best, taking advantage of a mistake by the visitors' goalkeeper Mamardashvili. A keeper of this level had no right to concede such a ball. In the second half, he managed to repel a much more difficult shot by the same Mudryk into the far corner.
Having materialized their advantage in a goal at the end of the first half, the Ukrainians slowed down and began to act on the scoreline. The terrible state of the Poznan stadium's lawn helped them, as it prevented the technical Georgians from demonstrating their skills with the ball.
The advantage of the Ukrainians was felt in the team game, everyone worked hard. Of course, I would like to see more from Artem Dovbyk, but he continues to have a goal drought in the national team. It is also worrying that the other strikers of the Ukrainian national team are also not very effective. How then can we score points? And soon we have another final - a match in Wroclaw with the Czechs. In order to move on, the Ukrainians must take revenge for the defeat in the first round in Prague," said Tsytykin.
