Valery Bondar: Ukraine national team wants to rewrite history

12.07.2018 12:03

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

Ukraine U-19 defender Valeriy Bondar dreams of joining the team for the semi-finals of the European Championship.

July 8, the youth team of Ukraine arrived in Finland, where the 16th to 29th will host the European Championships (U-19). About how the team is preparing for the tournament, the official site of the FFU told the defender of blue and yellow Valery Bondar.

- Valeria, the national team of Ukraine arrived in Finland in advance to adapt to the artificial fields of the new generation, which will have to play at the European Championship. How is the adaptation?

"It's all right." It took a few workouts to get used to this lawn. We thought that the weather here would be cooler, but everything is almost like in Ukraine. So we work in a good mood.

- Yesterday you had a tactical lesson. What was the emphasis?

- At the analysis of the game of the French national team.

- And what is the strength of the French?

- They have very technical strikers. And the team itself is fast. This team has a strong support zone, from which at any time can go dangerous transfer to the attack zone. It will not be easy to confront this opponent. But the French also have weaknesses where we will try to play.

- What are they?

- I don't think we need to talk about it now. Let it stay inside our team.

- Is the first fight the most difficult?

- It is possible that some psychological pressure affects the starting matches, but I believe that the national team of Ukraine will be morally ready for the game. All rivals in our group want to get to the next stage of the competition. There are no weak teams here, so in each of the matches will have to teach more than one hundred percent.

- What does the national team of Ukraine want to achieve?

- We want to rewrite history, and this is at least a place in the semifinals of the Euro. We will make every effort to achieve this result.

It will be recalled that the blue-and-yellows will open the European Championship on July 17 with a match against France. On July 20, the rival of the national team of Ukraine will be the team of England, and on the 23rd - the national team of Turkey. The other group will feature teams from Italy, Portugal, Norway and Finland. The two best teams of their quartets will reach the semifinals of the tournament.