Rotan: We understand for whom we are going to the Olympics – first of all, it is our military, thank you to them for their support

Head coach Olympic team of Ukraine Ruslan Rotan spoke about his team’s plans to prepare for Olympic Games 2024mood and motivation, and also shared his expectations for this historic tournament for our country.

“As for the goal for the tournament, I want to move forward step by step. I don’t want to predict anything. Our goal now is to prepare well, and then, match by match, we will set goals. I think it will be better and calmer for the players. I don’t want to put pressure on them. We understand perfectly well that some of our players have not played in tournaments of this level yet, so it will be difficult for them. We, as a coaching staff, must take this psychological pressure on ourselves. We need the guys to feel relaxed, because only in this state will they be able to demonstrate their best qualities.”

“During the preparation, we must bring all the players to a single functional state, because after the break they began training in their clubs and are not in the best physical condition yet. We understand this and must balance them. On July 14, we play with the Egyptian team, and on the 18th we hold, so to speak, a dress rehearsal before the Olympic Games – with the Paraguayan team. Then on the 19th we move to Lyon, where we will be based before the opening match at the 2024 Olympics. There we will prepare for the match with Iraq, which we will play on July 24.”

“What was the atmosphere like in the NOC? It was a lot of fun, first of all. And what I really liked was that the NOC supported us a lot, wished us to perform as well as possible at the Olympic Games, to bring each match to victory. This gives us wings, we will try and we understand who we are going there for – first of all, our military, thank them for their support! We also understand that we have a big challenge ahead of us, we want to represent our country with dignity.”

Ukraine will take part in the Olympic football tournament for the first time in its history. Rotan’s team won a ticket to Paris last year, reaching the semi-finals of the European Youth Championship.

On July 14, Ruslan Rotan’s team will play a friendly match with the Egyptian Olympic team, and on July 18, they will meet Paraguay. Both sparring matches will begin at 19:30 Kyiv time.

The coach of the Ukrainian Olympic team previously said that he does not see much desire on the part of most clubs to help his team and release their players to participate in the 2024 Olympic Games.

The final roster of the Ukrainian team included defenders Maksym Taloverov, Arseniy Batagov, midfielder Maksym Khlan, as well as the leaders of Shakhtar Donetsk – Dmytro Kryskiv and Danylo Sikan.

The Ukrainian national team will play at the 2024 Olympics with Argentina, Morocco and Iraq. In the first round, Rotan’s team will meet the Asian team on July 24.