Sergiy Nagornyak: "In the deciding match in Bosnia, the Ukrainian national team was completely in control of the game"

19.10.2018 15:01

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

Coach of U-17 youth team of Ukraine Sergei Nagornyak noted not only the result, but й cool team play in the Euro qualification.

Head coach of the youth national team of Ukraine (players not older than 2002), Vladimir Yezersky, due to family circumstances, was unable to go with the players to Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Euro 2019 qualifying matches. Therefore, it was the responsibility of the team to manage his assistant, Sergiy Nagornyak, who afterwards successful performance of the blue-yellows and, accordingly, the exit to the elite round of the European Championship answered questions from the official website of FFU.

- Serhiy Mykolayovych, what will be your result of the qualifying round of the European Championship for the national team of Ukraine?

- Well, we qualified for the elite round from the first place. And the level of football the team showed was high, as noted by the experts who monitored these competitions. The only exception was the first 15 minutes of the opening match of the tournament, against the Icelanders.

- Draw withand the Icelandic national teamprobably not in your plans?

- The opponent started to press from the first minutes, maybe our guys were a little burnt out, for which they paid with two conceded goals. But this was a good lesson for the players of the national team of Ukraine. In the future, the initiative was completely on our side. It's a pity that we only managed to win back, because there were a lot of chances to win. After this match, our players realized that friendly matches are different from the official ones.

— Match andwith Gibraltar - training with increased responsibility?

- We tried to let all the players play, and those performers who came out for this match worked hard. After Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Gibraltar 8-0 in the first round, the goal was to score more. And the guys performed this task, hitting the opponent's goal 11 times.

- At the tournament, the national team of Ukraine scored 90 out of 16 shots.

- I think it's normal. Although it was possible to score more. For example, in the same match with Iceland in the second half, our players scored 25 times, possession of the ball was 70 to 30, but upset the opponent's goalkeeper only twice.

- Everything was decided by the last match, іwith the owners.

- I do not want to look confident, but in the match with Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the minimal victory (3: 2), the national team of Ukraine completely kept the game under control. With 74 minutes played, the home side managed to get a XNUMX - XNUMX lead as he flipped the ball in after a cross from the right.

- У part Ukrainian national team was a legionary from Germany ...

- Yes, Eric Shuranov. A capable football player. He joined the team well, although this was only his second visit to the national team. The club did not let him go to friendly matches or tournaments. Eric is already involved in training with the main team of "Nuremberg", and this says a lot. Even Munich's "Bavaria" was interested in this ram striker, who is not deprived of technical abilities ...

- Name the three best football players of the national team of Ukraine at the last tournament.

- None of the players surprised us, because we know their potential. They all played at a decent level.