Former national team striker of Ukraine, Ivan Hetzko, shared his impressions of the October matches of the «blue-yellows» in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Ivan Hetzko (photo: athletic-club.od.ua)— These two victories are the merit of Ruslan Malinovskyi. In Iceland, he scored a double, and in Krakow, he provided an assist and scored the decisive goal. Due to a serious injury, Malinovskyi hadn’t played for the national team for over a year and came back, as they say, hungry for victories. It all points to him being the leader of the Ukrainian team in the upcoming matches.
As for the overall impression, there are many complaints about the game, especially in attack. Dovbyk had two or three chances but couldn’t score against Azerbaijan. Honestly, I didn’t think we would have problems in this match. So either the Azerbaijanis are strong now, or we are still weak.
In November, we should put all our efforts into the match against Iceland. Let’s be honest, we won’t win away against France. Therefore, maybe we should give the team leaders some rest: bench some and bring others on in the 60th-70th minute, so they are fresh for the match against Iceland. The main task, in my opinion, is not to lose by a large margin in France, the expert is confident.
