The head coach of Ternopil "Niva" Yuriy Virt shared his impressions of the victorious match of the Ukrainian national team over Belgium (3:1) in the Nations League.
Yuriy Virt— Yuriy Mykolayovych, what emotions do you have left from the match in which Ukraine won against Belgium (3:1) in a determined manner?
— Of course, the emotions are positive. There is victory! But! There is such a "but" — this victory does not give us anything yet. Because there is still the second match. And we need to prepare as much as possible for it. We need to show the same game and achieve the same good result. But overall in the first match, there were two different halves. In the first half of the meeting, there was a good start, there were attacks. But that conceded goal from Lukaku somehow affected the team psychologically. And in the second half, there was a completely different picture on the field. It was a completely different football from Ukraine. It was aggressive football. Our team spent a lot of time in attack and scored three goals. Ukrainians had several more goal-scoring chances. Therefore, overall only positive things can be said about this game and the result.
— The fact that the goals against Belgium were scored by UPL representatives Hutsuliak and Vanat adds weight to the Ukrainian championship, don’t you think?
— These are good masters of ours. They are really class footballers from the Ukrainian championship who can play in European championships. One can say that they worked for these goals. I’m really glad that they skillfully utilized the chances they got. Particularly, I can highlight Hutsuliak's goal. His pressure was high, and the Belgian defender made a mistake. In the end, Oleksiy coolly and acutely struck into the near corner. He struck exactly where it was needed. Thanks to this, the score was equalized.
— Do you think Hutsuliak struck well or did Courtois make a mistake?
— Courtois did everything a goalkeeper has to do. In that episode, it was Hutsuliak's skill. He really saw where to strike. He struck against the flow and showed his mastery. I would say that in the Ukrainian championship, Hutsuliak has scored such goals before. He sees the goalkeeper's position and hits where there is a free corner.
— Do you think Ancelotti reflected on something after this game, if we talk about Lunin and Courtois? Might Andriy be vying for the position of the main goalkeeper of the "Galacticos"?
— This match is a completely different story. The national team is the national team, and the championship is the championship. The club level is a completely different story. We cannot blame Courtois for the goals Ukraine scored against him. I can only say that I am really glad for Andriy. He is very psychologically resilient. He lacks playing time in "Real". And if Lunin is given this chance, he uses it one hundred percent. We can also recall the match in the Spanish Cup against "Real Sociedad". He played wonderfully in this match, although he didn’t have much playing practice. We see that Andriy is in good shape. Regardless of whether Lunin plays or not, if he is given a chance, he uses it. In the match against Belgium, Lunin took his chance. Andriy played very well. He acted reliably in his exits and played well with his feet. Everything was at a high level. We can recall that when the score was 0:0, Andriy, one could say, read Lukaku's intention and covered the ball. Lunin had this match at a very good and high level. But this is the national team! And clubs and national teams are different things. There is a different coach and so on.
