Vitaly Mikolenko is working in the general group, Viktor Tsygankov is still recovering
Head coach of the Ukrainian national team Sergei Rebrov spoke about the team’s preparation for the match with Belgium in the third round of Group E at the 2024 European Championship.
“Mikolenko has been working in the general group for three days now. I am satisfied that we have competition in every position. In the center of midfield – Sidorchuk, Shaparenko, everyone works every day and is ready for tomorrow’s game. Tsygankov? It’s still recovering.”
“Belgium is a very strong team. Before the start of the matches in our group, everyone understood that Belgium was the favorite, but in this tournament anything is possible. I remember the game against Slovakia: before the missed goal they created good chances.”
“Of course, this is a very serious team and we must respect them. But we have to think about ourselves how to play against this team. It’s important for us to be focused because we need to win.”
“We need to find a balance. Every player must understand: we do not have players who only defend or attack. It is important that all players understand their role and help each other. We’ll see how it goes.”
“It is very important how Belgium starts the match. We will prepare, and I believe that we need to go into the game with the same mood with which we finished the game against Slovakia. Because in the second half we added intensity to the game and deservedly won.”
“I don’t know what Belgium will think about, how they will play. We will explain to the players different scenarios that may arise during the game, and they will need to be prepared for them. It’s important for us to win.”
“I don’t know if this is fair or not. But if we are fourth with four points, then we deserve that fourth place.”
“If you look at yesterday’s matches, both teams Croatia and Italy deserve to play in the next stage, but these are the rules of the competition and we must adapt to them. Even if we have four points and don’t pass, we must think about how we should not have four points, but how to try to beat the Belgian national team.
“What will qualifying for the European Championship playoffs mean for Ukraine? For the team that we accomplished our first mission. For the country, we will probably continue the fairy tale for three or four days for everyone, because we all understand: Ukraine is in difficult times, it has been at war for almost 900 days. And every match like this means a lot to them.”
The Ukrainian national team with a goal difference of 2:4 takes last place in Group E, while all four teams have three points after two rounds.
Ukraine will meet with Belgium tomorrow, June 26. The meeting will take place in Stuttgart at the Arena Stuttgart, starting at 19:00 Kyiv time.
The match will be commentated by Roberto Morales and Vadim Skichko. The match will be officiated by a team of referees led by Anthony Taylor.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
