Oleg Kuznetsov: “The biggest number of problems in qualifying for Euro-2020 was created by Slovenians”

25.11.2019 15:00

Photo by Andrii Mayorov

Head coach of the U-19 U-2020 national team Oleg Kuznetsov summed up the team's performance in the Euro-XNUMX qualifying round.

The youth national team of Ukraine (players not older than 2001) triumphantly finished their performance in the qualifying round of Euro 2020 (U-19), ahead of the teams of Estonia (4: 0), Slovenia (1: 1) and Sweden in the standings (2: 1). The results of this performance were summed up by the head coach of the Ukrainians Oleh Kuznetsov.

- Olezhe Volodymyrovych, did the qualifying tournament for the national team of Ukraine turn out to be difficult?

- Judging by how events unfolded in the group, of course. Somewhere we did not expect the competition to be so intense. The level of the national teams of Slovenia and Sweden caused us a lot of trouble, but the main thing is that our team achieved its goal and reached the elite round. I am grateful to my wards for the quality work done, and to the national association for the conditions for effective training. 

- Second half match with the Swedes took away a lot of nerve cells from you?

- In this match, we set up the team to try to score a quick goal and in general - to make a backup before the break. Everything went according to plan, we scored twice, but the ball missed at the beginning of the second half somehow pinned our guys. Probably, so far we can't finish the decisive matches without nervousness (smiles).

- Did the match against Sweden turn out to be the most difficult in the tournament?

- No. The hardest part was meetings with Slovenia. This team has individually strong, well-trained players. In the first half, they created a lot of problems for us. We studied the Swedes better because we faced them in the final match.

- Which of your wards earned the title of MVP competition?

- Each match had its own heroes, but if we talk about the whole tournament, it is probably our goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin.