Famous coach and now expert Oleg Fedorchuk evaluated the game of the Ukrainian national team in the lost playoff against Belgium in the Nations League.
Oleg Fedorchuk
— Rebrov decided to hold a two-goal advantage at all costs, putting out five defenders. And after the match, he made a very strange statement that the results in the Nations League tournament were not very important. If the match is unimportant, then why did Rebrov choose a purely defensive style of play with a 5-4-1 formation? Why did he refuse to attack? As they say, there are more questions than answers. Ukraine played quite well in the two previous matches against Belgium at Euro and in the Nations League. Why couldn’t they act as freely and effortlessly in the third match?
Ivan Kaluzhny was exhausted after the first game in Spain, and the coaching staff should have noticed this. In Ghent, he seemed tired. Yarmolyuk and Sudakov also did not play their best. It is also unclear why Dovbyk was not released from the first minutes; he played well after he came on as a substitute.
It’s better not to enter the elite than to go out and be disgraced there. It’s like sending a student with average grades to university. After all, let’s not forget that we could have ended up in the third strongest division, as we were one step away from relegation,” Fedorchuk said.
