The U-20 Ukrainian national team opened the 2025 World Cup in Chile with a victory. In the opening match, Dmytro Mykhailenko’s team defeated South Korea 2:1. After the game, midfielder Bohdan Budko shared his emotions with the UAF press service.
Photo: UAF“The start was very intense: we were charged up, constantly pushing forward, while the opponent defended more. We quickly created chances and scored twice. We could have scored more, but that’s football — anything can happen. Then we started playing more to maintain the result. This is probably psychology: when you score twice, you try to preserve the score. The main thing is that we won.
In the second half, the Koreans made three substitutions, began to attack more actively, and created pressure. They played with two forwards, and it was difficult to get out of defense, but we stood our ground. Karaman became the MVP of the match — I am genuinely happy for him. Although, in my opinion, today this award could have gone to anyone: everyone worked to the maximum,” Budko said.
