Sergei Rebrov: "We have a very difficult group"

Head coach of the Ukraine national team Serhiy Rebrov summarized the results of the match of the 4th round of the 2024/25 Nations League with the Czech Republic (1:1), which took place last Monday in Wroclaw.

- How is Gutsuliak feeling?

- Unfortunately, he received a very severe concussion. Now he's in the hospital. The situation is very complicated. For now he stays here, then we will see.

- What did you say to the team after the match?

- I thanked them. Unfortunately, we conceded again from a standard position, but in the second half we tried to create chances. We have a very difficult group, and the Czech Republic is a very difficult opponent. They are a physically strong team, and it is doubly difficult to play against them individually when you concede first.

Before the missed goal we were losing a lot of rebounds, one-on-one battles, but then we started to look much better in these components. Especially in the second half.

- What changed after the break? It seemed that Sudakov and Shaparenko started to go deeper and start attacks.

- Sudakov and Shaparenko were shifting to the flank before, helping Mudryk, but it was difficult for them under the pressure of the opponent. In the first half, the Czech team pressed a lot. But it is hard to play in two days on the third, so after the break the pressure of the opponent decreased. The guys tried to do their best, but, as I said, our group is very hard.

- How do you evaluate these two matches - against Georgia and Czech Republic?

- All the guys are very upset. The main problem is that we lost two September matches, and I have no remarks to the team on these two games. Unfortunately, we have a lot of injured, but even with this squad we tried to do our best.

- Why did you make only one substitution compared to the first match - Stepanenko instead of Kalyuzhny?

- Kalyuzhny gave a lot of effort in the match with Georgia. Taras came out today and helped the team. Before the game, I asked all the guys how ready they were, and no one refused to come out from the first minute. It is important to keep the squad that won. But it's also important to recover.

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