Former Ukrainian national team player Andrey Vorobey commented on the result of the decisive match for qualifying for Euro 2024 against Italy (0:0).
“We all saw the progress of the national team and the attitude with which our players treated this game – with character, desire and good quality of play. This all gives great hope.
– What was missing to score a goal?
– Let’s still start from the fact that the opponents were European champions. If we had played with them, for example, six months ago or a little more, when they were in a recession, the situation would have been different. But now their team is on the rise. Therefore, first of all, we lacked luck.
– We attacked a lot, but we couldn’t create a real scoring chance.
– We had good attacks and chances. I wouldn’t say that we didn’t play well in attack. We attacked well against top defenders and a top team. And we were also played against by a man in blue who did not dare to award a penalty against the Italians at the end of the game.
– In your opinion, was it a penalty?
– Rather yes than no. If only Mudrik hadn’t started falling a little early. But there was contact. And if such a moment had happened in our penalty area, the referee would have instantly awarded a penalty. I won’t say, but there could be a priority for the Italian team to qualify for the Euro.
– What elements of the game in our performance should be noted?
– Although the Italians put pressure, our guys acted very calmly and calmly, quickly went from defense to attack and between the second and third lines they famously received balls and developed attacks – the same Sudakov, the same Zinchenko, Tsygankov. Based on this game, we can’t say at all that something didn’t work out for us. We played very decent football.
– Now we will play in the playoffs. The opponent could be Wales, to whom we lost in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. What to expect?
– Any team that makes it to the playoffs is a strong team that cannot be underestimated. And you need to approach it with the same attitude as when approaching Italy. Now our team is stronger than when we played with Wales in the previous playoffs.
#Italy #played #referee
2023-11-21 17:20:00
