Andriy Shevchenko: England played very pragmatically and took advantage of our mistakes

04.07.2021 02:03

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

The head coach of the national team of Ukraine Andriy Shevchenko held a press conference after the Euro 1 quarterfinal match against England (0:4).

- In the quarterfinals of the 1 World Cup, the national team of Ukraine lost to Italy. Then Oleh Blokhin said that this was a huge achievement. Now we lost in the quarterfinals to England. Will this situation ever change?

- In today's game, the result changed due to episodes. I don't think that Ukraine didn't show the football it professes. We didn't give up our principles, we played well in episodes, but at some points we didn't work out, for example, during the set pieces. Kryvtsov's injury also affected us, because he is an experienced defender and has a certain anthropometry. We do not have such strong defenders today who can oppose the British, especially in aerial duels.

15 years have passed, and after the quarterfinals of the World Cup the team made their way to the quarterfinals of the Euro. If we do not have a strong domestic championship, we will be less likely to get there. In order to compete at this level, we need to have players who play in the top-XNUMX European leagues.

I am very pleased with the performance of the team. I thanked the guys for their dedication and for trying to play football.

- Will you remain the coach of the national team of Ukraine?

- Now the championship is over for us. We will return to Kyiv, summarize the results, report on the work done. As UAF will have to make decisions, so will I. There is time for this, no one will rush anywhere. We have to report on the tournament.

- How would you rate Harry Kane's performance?

- I think he is getting in shape. He converted his moments. That's all you need from attackers. In such tournaments, forwards of his level make a difference.

- How good did England look like?

- England played very pragmatically, on their strengths. They took advantage of our mistakes, worked great on the second floor. The opponent generally controlled the game. We made mistakes and could not oppose anything to the opponent. Sometimes in the game we had good episodes, but we did not bring them to the end. England is strong both individually and as a team, it has a great coach. The English reached the semifinals, and I see this team in the final.

- All participants of Euro 1 quarterfinals held group stage matches at home. Did it give them any advantage?

- I think this is a big advantage. When you play at home, you don't have to fly, you train at your stadium, you play matches. This detail makes a big difference.

- Why didn't Ruslan Malinovsky get in the application for the match?

- Ruslan has an injury that did not allow him to play. We hoped that he would recover in those days. He has a very sore afferent muscle. This morning he tried his hand, but did not even get to the application.