Oleg Kuznetsov: “We will only be able to gather all the best football players in September”

29.04.2019 15:01

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

Head coach of the U-18 U-XNUMX national team Oleg Kuznetsov told about the team's upcoming plans.

Today the youth team of Ukraine (players not older than 2001 year of birth) has started a gathering during which it will hold two sparring with Turkish peers. And the day before, the mentor of blue and yellow Oleg Kuznetsov answered the questions of the official site of the FFU.

- Olezhe Volodymyrovych, during the next stage of training your team is scheduled for two friendly matches with the Turkish team. Do you know this opponent well?

- To some extent, because we have already met with teams of this age several times. But this was at the beginning of our journey. For the next year and a half, we have no information about the Turkish national team. I don't think it made sense to look for it, because the lineups are always changing. So now let's meet the Turks again. But from the experience of past meetings I can say that this is a serious opponent. This is also evidenced by the fact that we have a negative balance of face-to-face matches against the Turkish national team.

- The players of Kyiv Dynamo are not on the list. What is the reason?

- The players were not released, as this is not a UEFA date. The situation will be the same at the end of May, when our national team will go to the international tournament "Cup of Slovakia". It's a pity, because it is in such representative competitions that you can see all the best qualities of performers.

- When will you be able to gather all the strongest?

- I think, in September and October, at the two final meetings of the team before the start of the Euro 2020 qualifiers. These deadlines coincide with the official UEFA dates.

- Will there be enough time to best prepare for the selection for the Euro, which will take place in November this year?

- I think so. We have the main clip. However, again, in Slovakia at the next training camp we will have to do not only without Dynamo, but also without the Pitmen, whose face-to-face match, quite possibly for gold medals, coincides with the period of our training camp.

We will remind that the youth team of Ukraine, headed by Oleg Kuznetsov, is preparing for the qualifying matches of the European Championship 2020 (U-19), which will pass November 13, 16 and 19 this year. The rivals of the blue-yellows in the fight for tickets to the elite round of the competition will be the national teams of Sweden, Slovenia and Estonia.