Ukrainian national team midfielder Oleksandr Karavayev commented on our national team’s defeat against France in the 2026 World Cup qualifying cycle on MEGOGO.
— Oleksandr, unfortunately, we lost by a large score. What are your impressions of the game?
— Of course, it’s disappointing to lose by such a score, especially since we played 0—0 in the first half. We defended compactly and had moments of counterattacks. But against a team like France, it’s very difficult to play when you lose the ball on their half of the field—they counterattack very quickly.
In the second half, when they didn’t award a disputed penalty against them and immediately awarded one against us—it obviously broke us. We «opened up,» and they took advantage of those spaces.
— After that penalty, the game went differently...
— Of course, because you understand that conceding a goal against such a team makes it very difficult to come back. We tried to push forward, but we needed to play almost perfectly and not lose the ball, because such opponents punish immediately.
— What surprised you about France today?
— Everyone knows how they play; we’ve watched their matches. We understood that we couldn’t give them space, which we didn’t in the first half. In the second half, they found that space because we were trying to score.
— Now we have a decisive match against Iceland on Sunday.
— Yes, the main thing now is to recover and prepare for the decisive game.