Yozhef Sabo: «I read the news and see that there are no critics of the Ukrainian national team anymore. That's good»

The legendary player and coach of Kyiv’s Dynamo Yozhef Sabo commented on the results of the League of Nations play-off draw, where the Ukrainian national team will meet the Belgian national team.

— They have a good little team, the Belgians, but when they all play, — says Yozhef Yozhefovych. — And sometimes it turns out that one footballer is sick, then another, then injuries… So now, in four months, the Ukrainian national team will face another challenge. Well, we’ll live — we’ll see. Thank God that our guys made it to the play-offs and everything ended normally for the national team. I read the news and see that there are no critics of the team anymore. That’s good.

— For most people interested in football, the Belgian national team is primarily associated with Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku. Who else would you highlight?

— There are quite a few skilled players in the Belgian squad who play in the leading championships in Europe — Spain, Germany, Italy, France. And most of them are in the English Premier League. Besides De Bruyne, there’s Doku at Manchester City, and in other clubs — Trossard, Castagne, Onana.

— How do you assess Ukraine’s chances in the League of Nations play-offs?

— And what are the chances? We’ll see how it goes. But the fact that the strongest of all four possible opponents has fallen to us — this is a fact. We could have had the Scots or the Hungarians, or the Serbs. Although the Serbian national team is also a decent team, made up of players who play abroad.

Well, we will now wait for spring and observe what will happen and how it will happen. In the second half of March, the spring part of the championship will be gaining momentum, so those who represent Ukrainian clubs will already have match practice by the time of the meetings with the Belgians. I will repeat: Belgium is a good team. If we lose — what can we do, I see nothing terrible in this. At least we won’t be relegated from Group B. So we will cheer for Ukraine.

Andriy Pisarenko