Meeting of Parimatch Expert Club in Lviv, dedicated to the victory of the national team of Ukraine in the selection of Euro 2020 over the team of Serbia

08.06.2019 21:11

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

On June 8, a meeting of the discussion expert club Parimatch took place in Lviv, dedicated to the victory of the national team in the Euro 2020 qualifying match over Serbia. (5: 0). Well-known national football specialists and mass media representatives took part in the event.

It should be noted that this event, during which journalists can communicate in an informal atmosphere with representatives of the top management of Ukrainian football, famous players, coaches and analysts, goes to the traditional format. This time, the Parimatch expert club expanded its geography and gathered in Lviv to discuss the performance of the Ukrainian national team in qualifying for Euro 2020 and the future confrontation with Luxembourg. He followed in his footsteps after the enchanting victory of the blue and yellows over the Serbian team.

The experts of the event were the chairman of the Committee of national teams of UAF Myron Markevich, a famous football player, and now - the coach of the U-17 youth team Volodymyr Yezersky, ex-player of the national team of Ukraine Vyacheslav Shevchuk, veteran of Lviv "Carpathians" Stepan Yurchyshyn, representative of TM Parimatch Missouri and special guests from the Ukrainian Football Association.

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

The Ukraine-Serbia match was one of the key ones for our team in the fight for a ticket to Euro 2020. However, all members of the expert club agreed that none of them expected such a productive game from the blue and yellows. Interestingly, one of the initiators of both matches (with Serbia and Luxembourg) in Lviv, where our team has won 15 games in 17 matches, was Myron Markevich. "Yes, it was my initiative," Myron Bogdanovich admitted. - The chairman of the Lviv Football Association Oleksandr Shevchenko also supported this idea, as did the head coach of the national team Andriy Shevchenko. Andriy Mykolayovych put forward only one condition - to change the lawn at Arena Lviv. Thanks to the association, Ukraine played on a gorgeous lawn against Serbia yesterday. As a result, we have five goals against one of our main competitors in the group.

In my memory, this is one of the best matches played by the national team of Ukraine. Yesterday's game can be compared to a match in Kharkiv against Turkey. Of course, we expected a good game and victory from the national team, but the result exceeded all expectations. Initially, the winning push was given by the youth national team of Ukraine, which beat the team of Colombia in the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Poland. Alexander Petrakov's boys made it to the semifinals, and we congratulate them on this success.

Later, this victorious pace was supported by the main team of the country. I was present at the open training of the national team before the match with the Serbs and saw how the guys are preparing responsibly. In my opinion, the coaches guessed, distributing the strength of the players for all 90 minutes. The team acted at a high pace, and the guests had almost no chance. There was a good way out of the defense to attack. There were losses of the ball, but there were few of them, and the Ukrainians managed to have full control of the ball. The pass to the third drove the opponent's players into a dead end, they could not oppose the Ukrainians.

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

It is nice that Malinowski has already become a real leader of the team. How he played for Zora and how he plays now is a big difference. Tsygankov scored the first goal in time. I worked with Konoplyanka for two years. He is very useful in attack, so it is good that Mykolenko was on the flank, who provided Eugene with the opportunity to attack. His balls were also very important in this game. It is a pity that he has not yet found his coach, so he has problems with playing practice in European clubs. He may not have looked so bright, but Roman Yaremchuk, who scored his first goal in the national team, did a lot of rough work. Alexander Zinchenko coped with the game. Let's put it this way: our midfielder ate the middle of the field of Serbia, where the result came from. There was almost no danger at our goal, and Andriy Pyatov once again played reliably. "

In turn, Volodymyr Yezerskyi admitted that after such matches it is difficult to fall asleep not only to football players, as the fans provided fantastic support to the team, and Lviv celebrated the victory: It is good that Andriy Shevchenko managed to balance the physical condition of the legionnaires who finished the season earlier and those who finished the season in the UPL. It is possible that they did not manage to attack until the first goal, but the Ukrainians deprived the Serbs of their trump cards and played from the bottom, played confidently with their heels and put high pressure. The Balkans made a gift by playing three defenders, the blue and yellows reacted to it and adjusted. "

Vyacheslav Shevchuk also noted the incredible atmosphere at the stadium in Lviv: “With such a performance, which the national team always receives in Lviv, it is impossible not to play to the maximum at the last minute. It was a bright game, so the players can only thank the fans for such support. In my opinion, a revolution is taking place in the actions of Ukrainian teams. We don't play in vain anymore - the ball is ahead, and that's how it will turn out. There are many talented performers in Ukraine who can play football and still think on the field. We saw this in the match against the national team of Serbia, which includes players from top championships and top clubs. But our guys destroyed them. That's why our young players need to be supported. " During the discussion about the style of play of the national team, Volodymyr Yezerskyi added that the Ukrainians are retreating from the model with vertical football, switching to combination football.

According to Stepan Yurchyshyn, the Serbian national team was not seen on the field at all, so it is not even worth mentioning: “I am pleasantly shocked by the game of our team, no one expected such a big score. I think that after 2: 0 it became clear that Ukraine should not let go of the opponent. It is nice that Roman Yaremchuk, who made his first football steps in the Lviv region, scored. We haven't had such an attacker for a long time. If he continues in the same spirit, we will not have questions about this position in the national team. "

Given the paired round of the Euro 2020 qualifying tournament, our team will play an equally difficult and responsible game against Luxembourg on Monday. The second part of the meeting of the expert club was devoted to the discussion of this opponent. The moderators of the event invited the participants to predict the outcome of the match, and all the winners will receive prizes from the club's partner - Parimatch.

All experts agreed that the match with Luxembourg will be held in a different way, and it will be very difficult to break the rich defense of the guests, because this rival of the Ukrainians will play more closed football than the Serbs. "I would probably not use the rotation of the staff in the place of Andriy Shevchenko," Myron Markevich shared his thoughts. - He changed five players after the match in Portugal, and we saw what happened in the end. Therefore, I think it is worth playing in the same team, but the main thing now is to regain strength, because there are no complaints about the game against these players. We need to take three points, and if possible we would like the last match in Serbia to decide nothing, because we will have a "warm" reception there. "

According to Stepan Yurchyshyn, the Ukrainians need to score a goal as soon as possible in the meeting with Luxembourg, after which the team will be able to play more freely. Vyacheslav Shevchuk expressed confidence that the Luxembourg national team cannot be considered a "dwarf".

During the discussion, the journalists touched upon the topic of criticism of the national team and personnel issues. The representative of the staff of the blue-yellows Mykola Vasylkov made it clear that Andriy Shevchenko's door to the national team is not closed to anyone. The same Roman Zozulya, who spent a successful season in Spain and has experience of matches for the national team, has every chance to get a challenge again. As for the urgent return to the camp of the national team from the World Youth Championship Andriy Lunin, the goalkeeper was immediately included in the list of players who had to prepare for the matches with Serbia and Luxembourg, but then the youth coach Oleksandr Petrakov asked Andriy Shevchenko to release the goalkeeper. group stage of the World Cup. Later, Lunin arrived in Lviv, because for the head coach, Lunin is now the second goalkeeper of the national team.

Finally, the representative of TM Parimatch Vadym Misyura thanked all those present for a meaningful discussion and assured that such events will continue in the future. “The Parimatch brand continues to implement modern media projects. We believe that it is very important to create conditions for discussion between leading sports experts and the media. And today's joint expert club with the Ukrainian Football Association will help to analyze the game of millions more systematically. "