The forward scored a penalty in the match against Malta
Attack Ukrainian national team Artem Dovbik spoke about the team’s victory over Malta (3:1) in the qualification for the 2024 European Championship. The forward converted a penalty at the end of the first half and put the blue-and-yellows ahead.
“We expected it to be a very difficult game. Malta plays such tough football at home: until you score against them, they are always looking for their chances on counterattacks. That’s why we expected this. But it’s good that after the missed goal we turned on a little, started playing our football and won.”
“It was more difficult to play against Malta, the defenders were sticky, they constantly provoked, tugged, and hung on me. With North Macedonia it was a little easier, we had some free zones, there was somewhere to run. But even before the fights we expected that there would be two difficult matches. The main thing is that we got the result.”
“My goal? He hit the goalkeeper, he stayed until the last, so he knocked me down a little. It’s good that he scored. I feel confident now. I think that in the next moments like this I will make different decisions. Because goalkeepers also study who will shoot and watch, so I think we will do an analysis and change the shooting technique.”
“Next match with Italy? The first game we remember that we had chances. Somewhere I didn’t have enough strength after the match with England. We will have one game, we will give our all, we need to give our all in this match. We will have chances – and it will be a different game than the one in Italy,” Dovbik said.
In the match against Malta, 26-year-old Dovbik scored his seventh goal for the Ukrainian national team. In total, the Girona forward has 22 matches for the blue-yellows.
The Ukrainian team scored 13 points. The blue-and-yellows are in second place in Group C. England is in the lead, with Italy in third place. Squadra Azzurra has 10 points, but played one match less than Sergei Rebrov’s team.
In their final match, Ukraine will play against Italy on November 20. The blue-yellows will play their home match in Leverkusen.
Source: Sportarena
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