Bosnia and Herzegovina – Ukraine. The blue-yellows played only once on March 21, the first month of spring is difficult for the team

21 March Ukrainian national team will play against the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the semi-final match Euro 2024 qualifying play-offs. Over its 32-year history the blue-yellows played only once that dayand in total in March they played 35 matches out of 308.

The only match in the history of the blue-yellows on March 21 was a friendly one. Leonid Buryak, who replaced Valery Lobanovsky at the helm of the Ukrainian national team, who lost the playoffs for qualifying for the 2022 World Cup to Germany (1:1 in Kyiv and 1:4 in Dortmund), took the team to Japan. The national team of the Land of the Rising Sun was preparing for the home World Cup with South Korea and was not against meeting with Ukraine.

The blue-yellows arrived in Japan with a suboptimal composition – without Shevchenko and Rebrov, but with Zotov, Radchenko and Rykun in the lineup. Japan, which four years earlier made it to the finals of the World Cup for the first time, but lost all three matches in the group (Argentina, Jamaica and Croatia), gathered the strongest, and in general was on the move.

The country’s Football Federation invited French coach Philippe Troussier for a four-year cycle. Under his leadership, the team won the 2000 Asian Cup, did not lose a single match in the group at the 2002 World Cup (draw with Belgium, victories over Tunisia and Russia) and for the first time in history reached the playoffs, where they lost to Turkey, and then became second at the Summer Asian Games.

The outcome of the meeting with Ukraine was decided by an accurate shot in the middle of the first half by midfielder Kajuki Toda, who even went to Tottenham after the 2022 World Cup and for whom the goal against the blue-and-yellows remained the only one for the country’s national team.

• Japan – Ukraine – 1:0
  Goal: Toda, 24

Ukraine: Reva, Nesmachny (Zadorozhny, 46), Golovko, Vashchuk, Shishchenko, Timoshchuk (Zotov, 76), Zubov (Serebrennikov, 70), Zakarlyuka (Rykun, 54), Vorobey (Melashchenko, 75), Gusin, Popov (Radchenko, 46 ). Trainer: Leonid Buryak.

In general, March is a difficult period for the Ukrainian national team. In the first month of spring, the blue-yellows played 35 matches in their history: 21 official, 14 control matches. 14 – won, 10 – lost, 11 – ended in a draw.

In official matches in March, the Ukrainian national team had seven victories, nine draws and five defeats. In friendlies – seven wins, two draws and five losses.