Former midfielder of Kyiv Dynamo and the Ukrainian national team Serhiy Rybalka revealed the reasons for the failure of the Ukrainian national team at Euro 2016.
«When we went to Euro 2016, the atmosphere in the team was just cosmic. Everyone gave their all during training.
Then, Zavarov was removed from the national team’s coaching staff. Already at that time, everyone understood that Shevchenko would lead the team. Fomenko (Mykhailo Fomenko, the then head coach of the Ukrainian national team, — ed.) had no influence, because Shevchenko was already conducting the theory. And somehow the entire direct preparation for the Euro went just like that... Everything was already different.
That is why we got such a result (the Ukrainian national team lost all three group stage matches at Euro 2016 without scoring a single goal, — ed.). From the very beginning, everything was wrong. Some players were called up to the national team who hadn’t fought for the Euro 2016 ticket on the field. They hadn’t played in qualification but went to the championship itself. I don’t know if it was artificial or not, but they were immediately placed in the lineup. For example, Rotan, who played wonderfully in the national team throughout qualification, only came out in the last match at Euro, which no longer decided anything. And at that time, Rotan was the best on the football field and, if I’m not mistaken, then received the best player of the match award.
All these questions are for the leaders. They probably know why they put players in the lineup who weren’t in the team before Euro 2016, while those who were more ready for the Euro didn’t play,» Rybalka said on the YouTube channel of Denys Boyko.