Obviously Ukraine are huge underdogs and I don’t think anyone seriously believes we can get past England. The difference in player quality is monumental. But sometimes having no expectations can be a good thing - let England deal with the pressure and just have fun on the pitch and enjoy the moment. And this team knows how to have fun - they are a far cry from some of the ultra-defensive, cynical and boring Ukraine teams of the past; they have easily won their qualifying group with Portugal and Serbia, scoring 17 and conceding only 4, achieving a historic win over the defending champions in Kyiv and thrashing Serbia 5:0.
This team has a nice blend of youth and experience with the likes of an 18-year-old CB phenom Zabarny protected by the experienced DM pairing of Stepanenko-Sydorchuk and the diminutive young #10 from Dynamo Shaparenko alternating with Atalanta’s well-established Malinovskyi. Finally, in Andriy Shevchenko they have someone who has consistently achieved success at the top level and he clearly managed to instill the same fearless attitude in his players.
Of course, England was Sheva’s downfall as a player and it may well be that his coaching fairytale run will also find a stumbling block in England… Anyway, I’m looking forward to the game and I think this will not be as straightforward as many pundits seem to think. For anyone looking for a little primer on the history of Ukrainian football, I recently stumbled on this article: it’s not very well-written to be honest, but at least there is some background in English and some tidbits about Lobanovskyi and Ukrainian football during the USSR times. I’m too young to have experienced those times myself and mostly stopped following Ukrainian football in recent years, but I did grow up watching Lobanovskyi’s 3rd and last great Dynamo team in the late 90’s- early 2000’s and there are still echos of some of his ideas in the likes of Klopp.
This team has a nice blend of youth and experience with the likes of an 18-year-old CB phenom Zabarny protected by the experienced DM pairing of Stepanenko-Sydorchuk and the diminutive young #10 from Dynamo Shaparenko alternating with Atalanta’s well-established Malinovskyi. Finally, in Andriy Shevchenko they have someone who has consistently achieved success at the top level and he clearly managed to instill the same fearless attitude in his players.
Of course, England was Sheva’s downfall as a player and it may well be that his coaching fairytale run will also find a stumbling block in England… Anyway, I’m looking forward to the game and I think this will not be as straightforward as many pundits seem to think. For anyone looking for a little primer on the history of Ukrainian football, I recently stumbled on this article: it’s not very well-written to be honest, but at least there is some background in English and some tidbits about Lobanovskyi and Ukrainian football during the USSR times. I’m too young to have experienced those times myself and mostly stopped following Ukrainian football in recent years, but I did grow up watching Lobanovskyi’s 3rd and last great Dynamo team in the late 90’s- early 2000’s and there are still echos of some of his ideas in the likes of Klopp.
Last edited: