Oleksandr Petrakov: “Our main task is to prepare for the Euro 2020 qualification”

22.08.2019 15:01

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

Head coach of the youth team of Ukraine (U-17) Oleksandr Petrakov considers the group to which the Blue Banner at the Viktor Bannikov Memorial is very strong.

Before the start of the gathering of the youth team of Ukraine (football players not older than 2003 year), which will take part Victor Bannikov Memorials, The head coach of this team, Alexander Petrakov, answered questions from UAF's official website.

— Alexander Vasilyevich, now your team will have one of the few meetings when it is time to train. That adds to the optimism, the mood?

- To some extent - yes. But I still have other problems. Several defenders fell ill or were injured, so they had to make forced substitutions.

- But besides that you have changes as part of compared to the previous convocation of this team. Breeding continues?

"Of course." At this age, there are problems with the central striker. There is no one like Spouse born in 2000, Sikan born in 2001, Vanat born in 2002. Shuranov looks good in Vladimir Ezersky's team. One can only hope that the guys are still very young, so maybe someone will appear like a mushroom after the rain (smiles). I looked at the case of Lyapin from Sporting Lisbon, but his technical equipment leaves much to be desired. Now he has moved to a small German club, so it is difficult to follow him.

- How do you assess the level of rivals in your group at the Victor Bannikov Memorial?

- In the spring I saw the game between Georgia and Azerbaijan. The Georgians have a great team in general, but I also liked the Azerbaijanis. In recent years, the level of football there has grown significantly. Well, Israel does make this group very strong.

- After the defeat in May by the Israelis, you really wanted to meet them at the home tournament…

- Yes, it's a pity that, I repeat, we lost the players we were counting on at first. Shakhtar released only three of the six players, as Ocheretko plays for the U-21 team, and Kozak and Shostak for the U-19 team. Exactly on the dates of the national team matches they will have matches for the club.

Thanks to Dynamo and club president Igor Surkis for releasing their guys to the Victor Bannikov Memorial.

- Why will the national team of Ukraine hold its group stage matches in Bucha?

- It was my wish, because we will live in Pushcha-Vodytsya, and from there to the competition venue only 15 minutes drive. So we don't have to get to the Bannikov Scientific-Technical Center through the whole city.

- Although the tournament is friendly, nevertheless, you will set a goal for the wards - to win the competition?

- In 2011 I won this tournament with the national team born in 1995, in 2015 the competition was not held, so, of course, we do not mind becoming the best at home again. Although our most important task is to prepare for the qualifying round of the European Championship, which will be very difficult for the national team of Ukraine.

We will add that in the qualifying round of Euro 2020 (U-17), which in November 2019 will be held in Portugal, Ukraine's national team will play with Georgia (13th), Albania (16th) and Portugal (19th).