Journalist Oleksandr Sazhko commented on the draw of the Ukraine national team in the World Cup 2026 qualifying match against the Azerbaijan national team.
“I could only imagine the main midfield of the Ukraine national team in an official match with Kalyuzhny, Bondarenko, and Ocheretko in my worst nightmares. When Zinchenko and Sudakov are not playing in their native positions for the national team, and Yarmolyuk is sitting on the bench altogether.
And everything seemed simple here: either Rebrov prepared something truly original and effective for a specific opponent, or the coaching staff was so confused that they were unable to come up with a reliable plan to calmly defeat a team that hadn’t won an official match in two years and had lost heavily even to Haiti in friendlies. Knowing how the Ukraine national team has played for at least the last year and a half, I believed more in the second option.
No miracle happened. The Ukraine national team did not know what to do with the ball, and with huge problems, they managed not even to take shots but even to reach the final third of the field. It was really like a nightmarish scene. What did Serhiy Rebrov do with the squad to correct the situation after the break? NOTHING. Zero changes, the same game — it seems that the coaching staff was quite satisfied with everything.
Yes, they managed to score relatively quickly, but it was the same aimless football with virtually no moments — the goal remained the only truly dangerous episode of the match. The whole time there was a feeling that for such football we could be punished — deservedly punished, because the Ukraine national team did not do enough for a confident victory over the underdog.
And when Azerbaijan scored their second goal from a penalty in seven matches — there was absolutely no feeling of injustice. Although we were unlucky in that episode, what did Rebrov do to deserve a victory in this match? Ultimately, it was a typical match for Rebrov’s national team with an atypical squad — no matter how the coach reshuffles his players, the same unpleasant substance emerges in the end, which is repulsive. And since it was the head coach who chose the strategy for this specific match, the responsibility lies solely on him.
The Ukraine national team crashed at Euro, performed insufficiently in the Nations League, lost its place in the first pot for the World Cup draw, ended up facing France, and now it’s actually a logical continuation — losing points to Azerbaijan after strange decisions from the coaching staff.
As for this qualification and this match, according to the head coach himself, the national team prepared for the entire last year in the Nations League and friendlies. If this isn’t a complete failure, then what is a failure?
What’s worse: during all this time, Rebrov’s team has played just a few halves of quality football. Everything else has been suffering, misunderstanding, endless excuses from the head coach, and a lack of accountability for the results. After the match with France, we had to thank the national team at least for not embarrassing themselves, but just for losing — that’s the mood following Serhiy Rebrov’s work. And this is solely his “merit”.
I have to repeat the obvious: who else does the Ukraine national team have to lose points to for Serhiy Rebrov to finally find his dignity and resign on his own, instead of counting his salary at UAF? How long are we going to endure this suffering and even disgrace, like today? The head coach must go. If he still has even a little dignity left,” Sazhko wrote in his blog on Tribuna.com.