The national team of Ukraine started work at the October training camp: latest news from France (video)

05.10.2020 23:14

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

The busy calendar of matches forces the blue and yellows to be especially careful about each day of the meeting, trying to make the most of the available time. So, in order to minimize flights, the coaching staff decided to start preparing for the games with France, Germany and Spain in Paris.

A cozy suburb

This morning, head coach Andriy Shevchenko, his assistant Oleksandr Shovkovsky, ten players from the UPL championship, as well as medical and technical staff of the national team of Ukraine took off at 11 am on a charter flight from Boryspil International Airport in the direction of the French capital. Three hours later - at 13.15 Central European Time, the plane from Kiev landed at the airport of the Paris Air Hub "Charles de Gaulle", from where the blue-yellows went to the Hyatt Regency Chantilly in the suburbs of the French capital - Chantilly. This hotel complex is located in a quiet, cozy place surrounded by greenery. The national team of Ukraine is located in two separate buildings, where no one will interfere with its preparation for the first match of the training camp.

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

Meeting for lunch

The first meeting took place at the hotel reception - at the same time with the main group arrived collections from Italy. Ruslan Malinowski, coaches Mauro Tassotti, Andrea Mulder and Andrea Azzalin were happy to see their teammates. Immediately after the settlement, the team went to lunch, during which the group was joined by a large Belgian diaspora and Madrid residents Pedro Haro and Andrew Lunin. A little later, Andriy Yarmolenko, Ihor Kharatin, Oleksandr Zubkov and Yevhen Cheberko pulled up to dinner. Later, the sixth member of the Belgian group, Roman Bezus, joined the team, whom Andriy Shevchenko called up to the main group of players this morning.

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

Strict quarantine

In the conditions of serious personnel losses and the COVID-19 pandemic, all members of the national team constantly wear protective masks, which can only be removed in their own room and during meals. In order to minimize the risk of the disease, the medical officer of the national team Maxim Betsko strictly ordered the players not to remove the masks, even while gathering food from the buffet. Such harsh realities of today have put the team in a difficult position, so neglecting security means putting oneself at high risk of an epidemic.

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

An hour and a half before leaving for the evening training, all players playing in foreign championships, as well as players called up to the team the day before (Konoplya, Pankiv and Shepelev) passed PCR tests at the hotel, for which the team was invited in advance by a group of French physicians.

Autumn rain near Paris

The training on the field of the local stadium "Stade de Burgon", which has only one central grandstand for 200 people and is played by a local rugby team, was accompanied by a cold autumn rain. Monotonous precipitation at 13 degrees did not create a very optimistic picture, but this did not prevent the blue-yellows to conduct a lively training, the main purpose of which is to "level" the functional state of the players. This task is a common thing for the first day of the meeting, when the guys come from their clubs with different levels of workload. The 20 performers, who took part in the evening class on a heavy lawn due to rain, worked with inspiration and moderate intensity, which marked the beginning of the training process. Two players missed training. Goalkeepers Yuri Pankiv was given a chance to rest after yesterday's busy match, and striker Roman Yaremchuk, with the permission of the head coach, stayed in Ghent for a while, solving club affairs, but will join the national team in Chantilly tonight.

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

The schedule of the first day of the training camp will be completed by dinner, and tomorrow the Ukrainians will have an official evening training and a pre-match press conference of the head coach and one of the players at the Stade de France.

Oleksandr Hlyvynskyi, spokesman for the national team