The head coach of Zhytomyr’s 'Polissya', Ruslan Rotan, shared his reaction to the draw of the World Cup 2026 qualifying play-offs, which pitted the Swedish national team against Ukraine in the semi-finals. In the event of reaching the final, the 'blue-yellow' would play against the winner of the Poland vs Albania match.
Ruslan Rotan«The Ukrainian national team got a tough opponent. The Swedish team has a strong attack. It’s enough to name such players as Viktor Gyokeres ('Arsenal') and Alexander Isak ('Liverpool'). However, as the past qualifying tournament showed, the Scandinavians are not very strong in defense, as the team conceded in all matches.
It doesn’t make sense to talk about the chances of reaching the play-off final now, as there are still four months until the match. It’s important that all our leaders are in shape. We need to seriously prepare for this confrontation and do everything possible to advance to the next round of the play-offs,» said Rotan.
