The experienced football player believes that concentration and self-confidence will help his team
National team midfielder Ukraine Taras Stepanenko shared his thoughts on the eve of his team’s decisive match in qualifying Euro 2024 against the national team Italy.
“It’s always nice when our players win with their clubs, we always congratulate them. It is very important for them to be mentally, psychologically confident in what they are doing. When your team wins top championships, it’s very cool. This gives confidence to the players who score or provide assists for their clubs.”
“We have a lot of players who have played matches at this level. Everyone is mentally ready, good atmosphere. We cannot say that this match is some kind of apogee. Every match in the qualifying round helped us play such an important decisive match tomorrow. Each match in the qualifying round was very important. There is one more match ahead, which will be the next step towards qualifying for Euro 2024. Tomorrow there should just be more concentration and confidence in one’s abilities.”
“Everything is fine with us, we played a control game, everyone got playing time. Some played more, some less. There are no problems.”
Ukraine will play against Italy on Monday, November 20, in Leverkusen (Germany) at the BayArena stadium. The meeting starts at 21:45 Kyiv time.
The Italian team is in second place in Group C with 13 points. Ukraine also has 13 points, but is inferior to Italy in additional indicators. To qualify for the Euro directly, Sergei Rebrov’s team needs to beat Squadra Azzurra with any score in a head-to-head match in the last round.
If the Ukrainian team fails to win, it will go to the knockout stages of the Nations League. Its rivals could be either Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel and Finland, or Wales, Poland and Estonia.
The Ukraine-Italy match will be refereed by the Spanish team led by Jesus Gil Manzano. The Ukrainian anthem before the match will be performed by Sergei Ivanchuk, who miraculously survived enemy shelling in 2022.
In the first head-to-head match of Group C, which took place in September, the Italians beat Ukraine (2:1). Davide Frattesi scored a brace for Squadra Azzurra, while the now injured Andrei Yarmolenko scored a goal for the blue-and-yellows.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
