Sergiy Nagornyak: “I hope our players will want to take revenge in Belgium”

15.12.2019 16:01

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

The first year of independent work at the helm of the youngest team of Ukraine U-16 (football players not older than 2004 year of birth) ends Sergey Nagornyak, who shared his impressions of this process.

- Serhiy Mykolayovych, will you write off the end of the year for yourself and your team?

- Why not? Even in friendly matches, the guys showed a good result, although we do not put it in the first place. Thanks to the effective training organized by UAF, our coaching staff reviewed many candidates for the national team. The selection will not stop next year, however, it will not be so large, if there are no problems with inviting players. The backbone of the team is gradually emerging.

- You mentioned the results. In nine matches, your wards have won seven times, drawn once and lost once. Did it add confidence to the young players?

- Confidence comes with results. Winning is always nice, but now we focus on the game itself. And it is clear that the guys want to understand our requirements, for which I am grateful.

- Were the sparring matches with the Belgian national team the most useful?

- So. The opponent showed what mistakes we should work on. The guys need to understand that in such matches, concentration should be throughout the game. Interestingly, in the first match with the Belgians, in which she was a draw was fixed, we looked worse than the opponent, and in the next, lost match exceeded it. In general, I am a fan of playing with the top teams as often as possible. In the championship of such a school the player will not receive.

- The Belgian national team will be one of your competitors in Euro-2021 Qualifying Round (U-17). In the group with the teams of Georgia and Lithuania are the Belgians the favorites?

- So. This is a strong team. But I hope that our players will want revenge. The Georgian national team will be master of the competition. This fact will definitely give her motivation. This year, by the way, we also met with this opponent, beating him twice. So, at the second game Georgians performed very well. The victory of the national team of Ukraine was not easy. And it is still difficult for me to say anything about Lithuania, because we have not yet carefully studied the Baltics.