Ruslan Rotan: "We try not to forget about the country's rating and will do everything to earn six points"

12.11.2020 12:15

Photo by Volodymyr Rasner

The head coach of the youth national team of Ukraine Ruslan Rotan told about the current work of his wards before the last qualifying matches for Euro-2021 (U-21).

Today at about 10 am the youth national team of Ukraine flew to Malta, where on November 13 it will play its penultimate match of the qualifying tournament Euro-2021 (U-21) against the local team. The team consists of 22 players, including Shakhtar goalkeeper Mykita Turbayevsky and Kolos striker Yevhen Isayenko, who joined the team at the last minute. In the evening, the team will train on the artificial field of the arena in Ta-Kali, where the match will take place on Friday. 

Before the departure, the head coach of the blue and yellows Ruslan Rotan answered questions from the official website of the UAF.

- Ruslan Petrovich, how was the preparation of the youth team before the trip to Malta?

- As for the training process, the coaching staff is satisfied with the work done. That's just because of the coronavirus our footballers are constantly relegated, there are injured, so today we have almost a new team. But we understand these problems and work with them.

- The rest of the matches in the selection are prestige matches for the national team of Ukraine. How important is it to score maximum points in matches against Malta and Northern Ireland?

- We try not to forget about the country's rating and will do everything to earn six points, but in the first place will be the structure of our game, the quality of action of the wards. We have been working on this in recent days.

- Before the match with Malta, is it important not to underestimate the opponent?

- Many of our players are four years younger than the players of the Maltese team, so we should not talk about any underestimation. Physically, the national team of Ukraine may even lose to the opponent, but I repeat that the result is not very important for us. Given our lineup, we want the guys to have a better understanding of our game and prepare for the next qualifying round.

The squad of Ukraine U-XNUMX

Goalkeepers: Vladyslav Kucheruk (Kolos Kovalivka), Anatolii Trubin, Mykyta Turbayevskyi (both Shakhtar Donetsk).

Defenders: Oleksandr Syrota, Christian Bilovar (both Dynamo Kyiv), Vladyslav Dubinchak (Dnipro-1 Dnipro), Ihor Snurnitsyn (Olimpik Donetsk), Tymur Stetskov, Roman Vantukh, Vladyslav Babohlo (all Oleksandriya), Bohdan Milovanov (Sporting, Spain).

Midfielders: Daniil Semilet, Danylo Kravchuk (both Vorskla Poltava), Volodymyr Brazhko (Dynamo Kyiv), Serhiy Buletsa, Oleksandr Nazarenko, Yegor Yarmolyuk (all Dnipro-1 Dnipro), Heorhiy Sudakov (Shakhtar Donetsk) , Volodymyr Yakimets (Lviv).

Forwards: Ilya Shevtsov (Desna Chernihiv), Mykola Kukharevych (Rukh Lviv), Yevhen Isayenko (Kolos Kovalivka).

Euro-2021 (U-21) qualifying tournament. Group 8

Standings

13.11.2020

Malta - Ukraine

17.11.2020

Ukraine - Northern Ireland

Romania - Denmark

Malta - Finland