One of the most authoritative Ukrainian coaches, Vitaly Kvartsyany, assessed the prospects of the Ukrainian national team qualifying for the 2026 World Cup finals.
Vitaly Kvartsyany— I have already said once that Ukraine will finish in first place. We are tired: how much longer can we play without reaching the final stage?! Everyone remembers how Oleg Blokhin set the task for our national team before the qualification cycle for the 2006 World Cup in Germany: to finish first in the group. He kept his word then. So why not repeat it again? Serhiy Rebrov can do it too. There are chances. At least, the last two games of the national team — against Iceland and Azerbaijan — showed that anything is possible.
— Many experts now highlight midfielder Ruslan Malinovskyi, who made a significant contribution to the victories over Iceland and Azerbaijan. What can you say about the role of this player?
— He was already distinguished by his unconventional manner of play in the center of the field. Malinovskyi was always aiming for long-range shots — even when he played at Atalanta, and during his performances in Sevastopol as well. He did it very well. But when this player had a series of injuries, he didn’t stand out with such shots for a certain time.
Perhaps the head coach of Atalanta prohibited him from doing so, although Malinovskyi sometimes saved his team, scoring many goals that decided the outcome of the match or motivated teammates to win. Those final long-range shots were this player’s trump card. But then Atalanta began to change its style of play: they started to control the ball and play it out correctly. Everyone wants to switch to the Spanish «tiki-taka,» which I really don’t like.
I can say that in the games against Iceland and Azerbaijan, Malinovskyi showed his priority qualities — and they worked. He greatly helped our national team win these two matches. If he had not been on the field in them, I am sure it would have been difficult for the Ukrainian national team to secure the victory. Of course, anything could have happened. However, I believe that Ruslan did something incredible.
Vyacheslav Kulchytsky
