National Teams Hall of Fame. U-19: Euro 2004 bronze

20.04.2020 20:15

Photo by uefa.com

Recent successes of Ukrainian teams, in particular, of the national team - in the Nations League і European Championship qualifyingas well as Ukraine U-XNUMX at U-20 World Cup XNUMX, supplemented the history of domestic football with new bright pages.

We suggest to mention previous medal swirls of blue-yellow.

Starting from Euro-2002 cycle, the age category was changed from U-18 to U-19.

Since Euro-2003 (U-19) cycle, the qualification scheme has also changed. Anatolii Kroshchenko's team on the way to Euro-2000 final tournament was going through the group selection stage and then competing in playoff games. And in three years, instead of the playoffs, a second group stage appeared, which was shortly named the Elite round. That is, the selection scheme has become as it is now.

Pavlo Yakovenko's team started qualifying for Euro 2004 (U-19), on which Dynamo Kyiv and the national association had high hopes, as players for that famous special class were gathered not only from all over Ukraine, but also from neighboring countries. . In 2002, the players born in 1985 played in the final tournament of the Euro (U-17), but lost two matches in one draw and did not leave the group.

Some experience gained then helped during the qualification for Euro 2004 (U-19). After all, it started with a failure at home in Kyiv - with the national team of Armenia (0: 1). The match with the team played by the future star forward Edin Dzeko - Bosnia and Herzegovina: 2: 0 in favor of Ukraine, 2: 2, 4: 2, 4: 3 - was very tense and the last minutes were very turbulent. And the last meeting - with traditionally very strong Frenchmen - began with a goal of visitors, but Alexander Aliyev with two balls brought to Ukraine a victory - 2: 1, and with it - the second place in group (the Armenian took the first) which has allowed to pass to the second stage. selection.

Aliyev became the best scorer of that tournament - four goals. Defender Oleksandr Yatsenko added two more to his account.

The selection matches were played by footballers who did not qualify for Euro-2004 (U-19) final tournament. Their names are worth remembering: Andrii Bashlai, Serhii Puchkov, Oleksandr Polunitskyi, Denys Adleyba, Leonid Musin.

The preparation for the Elite round in April was very active. Yakovenko's team played a friendly in Turkey, participated in an international tournament in Porto, taking first place and winning over Ireland, Norway and Portugal, and finished preparation with two victories in friendly matches against Israel.

The national team of Ukraine went to Slovenia, where the fate of the only pass to the final tournament was to be decided, with very positive baggage. And continued to win in official matches - Denmark (1: 0, goal by Andriy Proshin), Slovenia (4: 1, Aliyev's double, goals by Dmytro Vorobey and Oleksandr Sytnyk), after which a draw with England was enough - 1: 1 (Aliyev) ).

Compared to the first stage of selection, Yakovenko decided to strengthen the composition of his already powerful team - at the expense of the best players born in 1986 (Bohdan Shust, Dmytro Chygrynsky, Konstantin Kravchenko), and even Oleksandr Gladky (born in 1987) played in the final tournament. And this reinforcement worked.

In Switzerland, the Ukrainians in three matches in a row kept their goal safe, and although they scored only once, it was enough to score five points and reach the semifinals. But there they were no longer lucky in the penalty shootout with the future European champions - Spain.

However, Ukraine was in the quartet of the continent's strongest teams and won bronze awards, as well as a pass to U-20 World Cup, which was to be held in the Netherlands in 2005.

Ukraine at Euro-2004 (U-19)

Step by step 

Belgium - Ukraine - 0: 0

Ukraine: Shust, Chygrynskyi, Kitsuta, Yatsenko, Proshyn, Aliyev (Sytnyk, 57), Milevskyi (Hladkyi, 76), Kravchenko (Maksymov, 80), Yarmash, Vorobei, Samborskyi.

Referee: D. McDonald (Scotland).

Booked: De Smet - Proshin, Samborsky.

July 13th. Creins. Kleinfeld Stadium. 900 spectators. Group tournament.

Italy - Ukraine - 0: 1

Goal: Milevsky (61).

Ukraine: Shust, Trusevich, Chygrynsky, Kitsuta, Yatsenko, Proshin (Rozhok, 49), Sytnik, Milevsky, Kravchenko (Aliyev, 54; Maksimov, 72), Sparrow, Samborsky.

Referee: A. Jephthah (Israel).

Booked: Nossa, Mejorini, Alberti - Proshin, Rozhok, Sytnyk.

July 15th. Creins. Kleinfeld Stadium. 1 spectators. Group tournament.

Switzerland - Ukraine - 0: 0

Ukraine: Shust, Trusevich, Chygrynsky, Kitsuta, Yatsenko, Aliyev (Rozhok, 85), Sytnik (Kravchenko, 78), Milevsky, Yarmash, Sparrow (Kotenko, 90), Samborsky.

Referee: J. Szabo (Hungary).

Booked: Jemayli, Sequeira - Milevsky.

July 18th. Creins. Kleinfeld Stadium. 4 spectators. Group tournament.

Spain - Ukraine - 2: 2 (on penalties - 4: 1)

Goals: Casadesus (12), Soldado (94) - Aliyev (66), Yatsenko (112).

Ukraine: Shust, Chigrinsky, Kitsuta, Yatsenko, Proshin (Kravchenko, 96), Aliyev, Sytnik (Gladky, 53), Milevsky, Yarmash (Trusevich, 89), Vorobei, Samborsky.

Referee: J. Szabo (Hungary).

Пahead of: Bergara, Campasol, Casadesus, Sergio Ramos - Kitsuta, Milevsky, Samborsky, Yatsenko.

The post-match penalties were scored by: Silva, Soldado, Sergio Ramos, de la Red - Sparrow. Not scored: Chygrynsky (past the goal), Kravchenko (goalkeeper).

July 21st. Lausanne. Juan Antonio Samaranch Stadium. 2 spectators. Semifinal.

Team of Ukraine (U-19) at Euro-2004

Eight players from that team managed to make their way to the national team of Ukraine. But since the birth of 1985 - only five: Artem Milevsky (50 matches, eight goals), Alexander Aliyev (28/6), Gregory Yarmash (8), Alexander Maximov (1), Alexander Yatsenko (1). Among the juniors are Dmytro Chyhrynskyi (29), Oleksandr Gladkyi (11/1) and Bohdan Shust (4).

But the most matches for the main team of the country of boys born in 1985 were held by others - Eugene Seleznyov (58/11) and Artem Fedetsky (53/2). Also playing were Vasyl Kobin (11), Volodymyr Homenyuk (8), Ihor Khudobiak (6), Volodymyr Polevy (5), Ihor Oshchipko (3) and Mykita Kamenyuk (1).

It should be noted that the future players of the national teams of their countries also played for our rivals in Euro 2004 (U-19): in Belgium - Thomas Vermaelen, Nicholas Lomberts, Faris Harun, Bjorn Vlemings, Jonathan Léjard, Killian Overmeire, Stein De Smet; in Italy - Riccardo Montolivo, Antonio Nocerino, Emiliano Viviano, Daniele Galloppa; in Switzerland - Valon Behrami, Johan Juru, Blair Jemayli, Reto Ziegler, Sandro Burki.

Sergio Ramos (170 matches, 21 goals), David Silva (125/35), Raul Albiol (56), Juanfran (Juan Silva Franco) became the European champions of the Spanish national team, which defeated Ukraine only in a penalty shootout. 22/1), Roberto Soldado (12/7), Ruben de la Red (3/1), Borja Valero (1). Three of them - Sergio Ramos, David Silva and Raul Albiol - won two Euros (2008, 2012) and the World Cup (2010). Ruben de la Red became European champions in 2008 and Juanfran in 2012. And Fernando Amorebieta decided to play for the national team of the country in which he was born - Venezuela (15 matches, one goal).

There were future stars in other teams - Mario Gomez, Marcel Jansen, Rene Adler (Germany), Jakub Blaszczykowski, Lukasz Fabianski, Lukasz Piszczek, Slawomir Peszko (Poland), Selcuk Inan, Burak Yilmaz (Turkey). And the player of the German team Ashkan Dejaga made a name for himself by playing for the national team of Iran.