Midfielder of the Ukrainian national team Egor Nazaryna commented on the heavy defeat from the French national team (0:4) in yesterday’s qualifying match for the 2026 World Cup.
Egor Nazaryna. Photo — UAF— I believe we succeeded in the first half. The French team didn’t have any scoring chances, only one shot can be remembered. We closed the zones well and overall successfully executed our game plan.
In the second half, the penalty against us broke us a little. Moreover, after this goal, we opened up a bit, started pressing more, which created spaces that the opponent took advantage of. Unfortunately, we lost, but the most important game is ahead of us.
— Did you support Mihavko, whose foul led to the penalty?
— Of course. These are football moments, it happens to everyone. A penalty is a penalty.
— Why didn’t the Ukrainian team succeed in attack today?
— Everyone understood that we were playing against France. All their players are top-level performers. But there were positives too. In the first half, we had a couple of counterattacks and I think we could have had some moments. In the second half, there could also have been a penalty against France: I believe it was a controversial episode. We will analyze all this and prepare for the match against Iceland.
— In the last 10 minutes, it seemed like the team fell apart completely...
— Firstly, the score was already 3:0, and we opened up even more. Opened up spaces. Secondly, we were already quite tired: we ran a lot already in the first half. And with such an opponent, when they all face the goal, it’s hard to defend.
Andrey Nedbailo, for Dynamo.kiev.ua from «Parc des Princes»
