Former player of Kyiv’s «Dynamo» and the Ukrainian national team, Serhiy Kovalyets, shared his thoughts on the Ukrainian national team’s prospects in the playoff qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. Let’s recall that the «blue-yellows» will play against Sweden in this stage’s semifinals, and if successful, they will face the winner of the Poland-Albania match..
Serhiy Kovalyets— It’s good that we made it to the playoffs after the match against Iceland. I believe this match should serve as an example of proper team actions when our players skillfully defended and attacked. All of this was at a good level.
— How do you assess the results of the draw in Zurich?
— Regarding the draw, I can say that the first opponent in the playoffs, Sweden, is about the same level as Iceland. So it all depends on us. As for the other pair, Poland-Albania, with the winner facing the Ukrainian team should they defeat the Swedes, everyone believes that the Poles will advance. Although the Albanians, I think, are also a good opponent, who are also striving to reach the World Cup finals. However, we shouldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves — it’s important to beat Sweden first and then look further.
— What do you consider the most important in preparing the Ukrainian team for the March challenge?
— It’s important for all our players to be healthy and match-fit. Before the game with the same Iceland, Tsygankov recovered, and Malinovskyi returned to the team. As we have seen, this played a good role.
— A rather interesting situation may arise. If we assume Ukraine beats the Swedes, and Poland defeats Albania, the notion of a «conditionally home match» might lose its meaning if the game takes place on the territory of a neighboring brotherly country. Is that not so?
— Here we return to the idea that if we were playing in Ukraine — in Lviv, Kyiv, Donetsk, Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Odesa, or Kharkiv, it would be 50 percent of the victory. But now our team has entirely different conditions. We understand that home matches have to be played on neutral grounds, and that’s not quite the same as playing with home support. However, we must thank the Ukrainian fans who come from various cities in Poland, Ukraine, and other countries to support our national team. This is of great importance.
Andriy Pisarenko
