The head coach of the Ukraine U-17 national team (players born in 2008 or later) Oleksandr Sytnyk shared his impressions of the "blue-yellow" team’s performance in the second round of the Euro 2025 U-17 qualifiers.
Oleksandr Sytnyk (photo: uaf.ua)— Mr. Oleksandr, what will be your conclusion after the performance of the Ukrainian national team in the second round of the qualifiers Euro?
— Of course, there is despair because we wanted to perform better. But we have what we have. We understood that we had a serious group with strong opponents. Despite this, we set maximum goals for ourselves — to take first place or at least qualify for the World Cup. Perhaps we could have achieved more than third place, but we were a little short on time to train.
— Was the first match of the tournament against Croatia crucial for your team?
— Undoubtedly. The situation with the draw also slightly affected the results. We opened the tournament against the hosts, then faced a strong Italy, and only in the third match, without diminishing the Slovaks’ merits, did we encounter a team that was slightly weaker than the first two opponents. And such mini-tournaments are always better to start with a positive result, so that it’s easier to build strategy later.
I have already said that we were a bit short on time. We arrived two days before the start of the competition, and it was difficult to understand the condition of our players, especially those who play abroad. Statistics are one thing, but seeing a performer with your own eyes is entirely different. And we also didn't have time to work on set pieces near our goal, which also spoiled the result for us. One could say that we approached the match against Croatia not in optimal condition. However, if you look at the game itself, it was even.
— Is it disappointing to lose a victory, as happened in the match against the Italians?
— Very. Our players had tremendous motivation for this match. We understood who we were playing against, but we needed a victory. The game turned out to be tense. Our boys felt more pressure from the result since the Italians had three points behind them.
Despite the fact that we surrendered the ball to the opponent, we played the first half at a very good level. The team basically didn’t allow the opponent to create anything, and we managed to score.
The game was intense and energy-consuming, and therefore by the end, it was clear that our boys were tired. Moreover, the substitutions did not meet the expectations of the coaching staff, and we failed to push the game away from our goal. We held on a little too late, lacking concentration on set pieces. Conceding a goal in the 90th minute, our players got upset; emotionally, it’s hard, while the Italians, on the contrary, gained momentum and immediately scored the second goal.
However, one must go through such experiences as well. In the locker room, I thanked the team for their commitment; the players left everything on the field.
— How did you manage to motivate the team for the match against Slovakia?
— After the match against Italy, we worked a lot with the players on psychology, communicated, there was a lot of theory, and we even made training emotional to encourage the team. And I am glad that the players listened. We managed to restore the team’s drive for the fight. I speak this knowing how the match against Slovakia went. We had no desire to drop down to League B.
Perhaps there were issues with realization, but the winning goal at the end of the match can be said to have lifted the burden off the players; the team exhaled. This is the kind of confidence we lacked in the first two matches of the qualifiers to put a timely end.
— The next official competitions for this team will be in the fall of 2026 when they will play in the first qualifying round of Euro-2027 U-19. What are the team’s immediate plans?
— There is still a long way to the official starts, but in order not to lose connections, we will hold training camps, the next of which is set to take place in June.
Let us remind you, the Ukraine U-17 national team was unable to qualify for the final part of the 2025 European Championship. In their group, the Ukrainians finished only in third place.
