July 3, 2023, Monday. 15:20
One of the most authoritative Ukrainian experts, former Dynamo Kyiv and Ukrainian national team helmsman Jozsef Sabo, in an exclusive commentary to UA-Football, did not hide his emotions about the ups and downs of the European Championship 1/4 final match between the youth teams of France and Ukraine (1:3).
“I did not expect this,” Jozef Jozefovich admits. – In my predictions for this fight, I regarded the chances of my opponents as 50 to 50. But our team is great – both the coaching staff and the guys! They built the game colossally, beautifully! Only at the beginning of the match, for 10-15 minutes, the situation on the field was not in our favor, but then the guys figured it out – and everything went right. And the second half was generally for us.
Read alsoRotan about the victory over France: We stand up for our soldiers
– Did the tactics skillfully chosen by Ruslan Rotan work, or was it some other factor?
– And the tactics worked, and all our players on the field worked. Game discipline of the youth team of Ukraine was at a high level. Very high! The guys deliberately gave the ball to the opponent: they say, here – take it, play it, and we will do our job on counterattacks. Especially when you consider that the coaching staff released Mudrik in the starting lineup. And this player, as everyone knows, has speed, so the French had to be very careful. This is how it turned out in this game: first, Mudrik earned a penalty (although, in my opinion, the situation with the penalty kick is ambiguous, but if you looked with the help of the VAR system, it means he was), and then became a co-author of the second ball, which I would call a real masterpiece .
– Mudrik repeated what he did in the Euro 2024 qualifier against North Macedonia with the national team, when he acted as an assistant to Viktor Tsygankov’s goal.
– Exactly. The only difference is that, unlike the game in Skopje, in yesterday’s match Mikhail was away from France’s penalty area, making a pass from his own half of the field. Ukrainians play it, and you can only rejoice. Well done, just great! I was so pleasantly surprised and so happy that I could not fall asleep until three in the morning! Even before the game, I told several friends that I would sincerely cheer and keep my fingers crossed for our team – and it’s very nice that everything turned out the way we all wanted.
– At this European Championship, the “junior team” of France proved to be quite powerful and well-oiled team in all lines. Therefore, the victory of Ruslan Rotan’s wards over her is worth a lot…
– Dudes in football are punished. The French scored the first goal for us and, apparently, thought they would do it again. But for some reason this “just about” did not work out. It’s all about psychology. When a person thinks that the deed is done, the win is already in his pocket and you can only bring it to its logical end, nothing like this happens. Our guys proved that you need to endure – and endured! They played very well on defense. Yes, and coaching work is worth noting. Rotan saw that something was not going well in the back line, and something was not going well in the middle line. However, by taking action, things improved and managed to achieve such a coveted victory. The French obviously didn’t expect things to turn out this way. Let’s say, when Bondarenko scored the third goal, the French defender was sitting on the floor, he didn’t even have the strength.
2023-07-03 16:01:00
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