Oleksandr Petrakov: “We are glad for Nikolenko, but we missed him very much”

22.11.2018 15:02

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

The head coach of the U-20 youth team of Ukraine Oleksandr Petrakov had to face big personnel problems at the last meeting.

The Ukrainian National Team (players not older than 1999) has completed the first stage of preparation for the World Cup, which will be held from May 23 to June 15 next year in Poland.

During the training camp, the blue-yellows played two away friendly matches - against the youth team Azerbaijan national team (U-21) і Poland (U-20). Head of the team Alexander Petrakov told about the results of the work done on the official site of the FFU.

- Oleksandr Vasyliovych, did you get a lot of information based on the results of two sparring matches?

- Despite our great personnel losses, the Polish national team, for example, did not surpass us in the game. We brought goals for ourselves. Although, of course, in this match, as well as in the match with Azerbaijan, it affected the fact that we did not see the players for three and a half months. I had to get used to each other again. It is a pity that, unlike other national teams, we were not able to work in September and October for UEFA.

- Did you have any questions about the organization of matches?

- We were well received both in Azerbaijan and in Poland, where the smell of the World Cup is already felt. After all, we played at one of the stadiums that will host the World Cup.

- You failed to gather all the strongest…

- Exactly. Valery Bondar played in Azerbaijan, but the consequences of the disease affected, and during the flight to Poland we left the defender in Kiev. Andriy Kulakov's temperature had already risen during the training camp, so he didn't play at all. Mykola Musolitin also fell ill before the match with Poland. When Georgy Tsitaishvili arrived at the team's location, he said that his knee hurt and he could not play for the national team. The football player packed his things and left. Yuhym Konoplya and Oleksiy Khakhlyov treat knee joints. And Vitaly Mykolenko, as you know, was in the location of the main team of the country. We are happy for our vice-captain, who attracted the attention of Andriy Shevchenko and his assistants, but we really missed him.

Unfortunately, the guys who were called in to replace the injured have, to be honest, not impressed me yet. Yes, they tried, but their skill level leaves much to be desired. There is still a lot of work to do, and there is not much time for the World Cup.

- Will the next stage of preparation take place soon?

- Unfortunately yes. Preliminarily - in late March. That is, now we will meet with the guys in just four months. But we are not used to achieving results with titanic efforts.