On Sunday, November 16, the Ukrainian national team will play the final group stage match of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Iceland. The match is nominally a home game for the Ukrainian national team but due to the war, it will take place in Warsaw. The day before the game, a pre-match press conference of Ukraine’s head coach Serhiy Rebrov was held at the stadium «Legia,» which will host this match.
— How has Sudakov’s injury affected the team’s plans?
— Unfortunately, Sudakov is out and has already gone to join Benfica. I didn’t even know during the warm-up that he had such an issue. We conducted an examination in the morning, and it revealed a serious injury. He went for treatment. Sudakov got this injury at Benfica, and during this camp, he didn’t have a single training session with us.
As for your question, why aren’t you asking about the plan for the game without Zinchenko or Dovbyk? (Smiles).
We always have injuries. Those who are currently with the team need to achieve the necessary result tomorrow.
— In the first game against Iceland, the Ukrainian team was helped by long-range shots. Could this happen again tomorrow?
— I believe we should maintain what we had in the first game against Iceland. Fast attacks like in the first half, challenges—like in the second half when we scored. But tomorrow, we need to be more aggressive. One result suits us, and Iceland has two options. So, we need to think about winning and scoring goals.
Serhiy Rebrov. Photo — A. Popov— In the first game against Iceland, even with the score at 3:3, your team moved forward. Considering the importance of tomorrow’s match, what is the likelihood of taking risky, unexpected decisions, or will you play more pragmatically?
— Unexpected decisions are made by the players. I am sure they wanted to win against Iceland in the first game, so they pressed forward. They weren’t satisfied with the score. Tomorrow should be the same. Even if we score, we must not retreat. We need character; the guys must be fighters, we are fighting for all of Ukraine. I am confident we will have strong support from Ukrainians, Poles. It’s hard to discuss all aspects of our game, but we all have to show character tomorrow.
— Tomorrow is a decisive match. Did it help you to play with a semi-reserve squad against France?
— I hope so. We always say the Ukrainian national team finds it very difficult to play the second game in a double-header. It truly is. In two days, we have to fly, recover. Given we had an important match ahead, we decided on rotation. I hope this helps the guys. But it doesn’t mean we’re initially in better shape than Iceland—we need to prove it in the game. We’ll see if we can use this advantage.
Team Iceland plays intensively in every match. Unfortunately, we don’t have that. Players from Dynamo, Shakhtar have a lot of travel, matches. I believe this rest will benefit us in tomorrow’s game.
— Considering the outcome of the first game against Iceland (5:3), can you say you’ve found the key to this challenging opponent?
— Every game is unique. We can’t say we’ll show the same game tomorrow as in Iceland. I’m sure it will be a different game. The tactics will be different, and the opponent will play differently.
I always say you have to respect the opponent. We showed the guys the Icelandic team, but we need to demonstrate our game. Yes, we have a great team opposing us, with good standards, but we have to showcase ourselves. I hope tomorrow the guys will step onto the field with the mindset of respecting the opponent but thinking about themselves and knowing how to achieve victory.
Pre-match press conference of Ruslan Malinovskyi.
Oleksandr POPOV from Warsaw
