Ukraine U-20 national team at world championships: how it was

21.05.2019 14:00

The Ukrainian national team will play at the World Cup U-20 fourth, this time in Poland. Among the participants in the current tournament, the teams of Ecuador, Qatar and South Africa have the same experience.

Sparring with the latter wards of Alexander Petrakov held on May 18 at the STC. V. Bannikov. Senegal, Norway (for the third time) and Tahiti (for the second time) were among the finalists of the 20 World Cup (U-2019).

Four of the 24 teams that will play in Poland have never left the group (Honduras, Norway, Panama and Tahiti), five more stopped at the stage of the 1/8 finals, including the national team of Ukraine (except for us - Ecuador, New Zealand, South Africa, Saudi Arabia). For us, the world championships ended in this way in 2001, 2005 and 2015.

Three previous U-20 national team campaigns

In the first case, the coach of the national team of Ukraine was Anatoliy Kroshchenko, in the second - Oleksiy Mykhailychenko (although our team got to the World Cup thanks to the performance at the Euro under the leadership of Pavel Yakovenko), in the third - Oleksandr Petrakov. The same one who coaches the national team this time as well. He is a truly unique specialist in our football.

All three times Ukraine dropped out of the draw after a meeting with a representative of another confederation. In 2001 we were beaten by Paraguay (2: 1), in 2005 - Nigeria (1: 0), in 2015 - Senegal, and in a series of penalties (3: 1, playing time - 1: 1).

Later, Senegal, by the way, defeated Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals (1: 0), lost to Brazil in the semifinals (0: 5), and in the match for third place lost to Mali (1: 3). Paraguay achieved the same result: victory over the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals (1: 0), defeat by Argentina in the semifinals (0: 5), defeat by Egypt in the match for third place (0: 1).

And better than all the rivals who beat us in the 1/8 finals, then Nigeria performed in 2005 - it reached the final: the Netherlands - 1: 1 (on penalties - 10: 9), Morocco - 3: 0, Argentina - 1: 2. And the Argentines were Lionel Messi, who became the top scorer of the World Cup (six goals). And the second and third places among the snipers were shared by our Alexander Aliyev and the Spaniard Fernando Llorente (five each). In the final match, Messi scored twice and brought victory to Argentina.

And in 2015, our Viktor Kovalenko won the Golden Boot - two more assists were added to his five goals. But the Hungarian Benz Mervo was able to boast only five goals and received the "Silver Boots".

Ukraine showed the best performance at the group stage in 2015. Then Petrakov's team scored seven points and took first place (New Zealand - 0: 0, Myanmar - 6: 0, USA - 3: 0), ahead of the Americans by one point.

In 2001, Anatoliy Kroshchenko's wards also passed the group undefeated and took first place, but with two draws and five points: Chile - 4: 2, China - 0: 0, USA - 1: 1. In 2005, for the second place of Ukraine in the group had to count the difference between goals scored and conceded, which was worse in Turkey. Oleksiy Mykhailychenko's team started briskly with Panama (3: 1), lost to China (2: 3) and drew with the Turks (2: 2).

By the way, with the USA national team in Poland the Ukrainian national team will play for the third time for four world championships (U-20). We have met with China twice, the second meeting in Poland will be held with Nigeria. But we will play Qatar for the first time.