Today in Turkey, the youth national team of Ukraine played its second friendly match during the preparation for the final tournament of Euro-2025 (U-21).
In the first match, the team coached by Unai Melgosa drew with Slovenia (1:1) in regular time, losing in the penalty shootout (5:6). Today, the “blue and yellow” met with the team of Poland in Belek.
Friendly match
Poland (U-21) — Ukraine (U-21) — 3:2 (0:1)
Goals: Wlodarczyk (49), Fornalczyk (78), Szymczak (89) — Vyunyk (19, 67)
Warnings: Pyrka (90+1) — Mykhavko (70), Vivcharenko (73).
Ukraine (U-21): Yermakov, Vivcharenko, Mykhavko (Kozik, 87), Salyuk, Krupskiy, Braharu, Rubchynskiy (Krushynskiy, 61), Yatsik (Tsarenko, 72), Braharu, Veletin (Khlan, 46), Vyunyk.
Poland (U-21): Trelowski, Mosur (Polyak, 66), Peda, Beiger (Matushik, 66), Shmit (Pyrka, 66), Kalyuzhinsky (Lengovskiy, 46), Rakoczy (Szymczak, 60), Kozubaly (Kovalchik, 60), Luberetskiy, Wlodarczyk (Kozlowski, 60), Pyenko (Fornalczyk, 61).
The Ukrainians immediately took the initiative and in the first 15 minutes tried to achieve results with long-distance shots. They managed to open the scoring in the 19th minute. Bohdan Vyunyk received the ball in the corner of the penalty area, moved to the center, and shot accurately low — 1:0.
After this, the opponent became more active and conducted a couple of decent attacks that ended with dangerous moments; however, our goalkeeper Georgiy Yermakov was on high alert. The Ukrainian team responded with a sharp run in the 34th minute. The ball hit the post after a shot by Maksym Braharu. Eight minutes later, Vyunyk went one-on-one with the Polish keeper but could not outplay him.
Almost immediately after the break, the Polish youth team equalized, taking advantage of our defensive mistake. In the 49th minute, Szymon Wlodarczyk came one-on-one with our goalkeeper and did not miss — 1:1.
Ukrainians again took the lead in the 67th minute. Bohdan Vyunyk scored a double, receiving a great through ball from Oleksandr Yatsik.
However, the blue-yellow team could not hold the win. In the 78th minute, Volodymyr Salyuk made a mistake, the ball was picked up by Mariusz Fornalczyk, and restored parity — 2:2. Moreover, another mistake by Yermakov and Salyuk, who did not sort it out between them, led to a goal by Filip Szymczak. Thus, 2:3 — defeat for the youth national team of Ukraine.
Let us remind you, this summer the youth national team of Ukraine under the guidance of Unai Melgosa will compete in the final tournament of Euro-2025 (U-21) in Slovakia, where in the group stage it will play against teams from Denmark (June 12), Finland (June 15), and the Netherlands (June 18).
