Natalia Zinchenko: "With the lineup for the match with Spain, we decided on 70 percent"

25.10.2021 18:00

Photo by Volodymyr Rasner

On October 26, the women's national team of Ukraine will hold another match of the 2023 World Cup qualifiers in Kovalivka with the Spanish team (17.00).

- Our tomorrow's rivals are the favorites of the match, - said the head coach of the women's national team of Ukraine Natalia Zinchenko in a comment to the official website of the UAF. - We have to be realistic: Spain is a top national team, and even matches with it are a very valuable experience that will definitely come in handy in the near future.

- We are convinced that during the preparations for tomorrow's confrontation you had no problems with gathering information about the Spaniards…

- Indeed, I have videos of all their last matches, but, frankly, they are uninformative. Judge for yourself: in the recent matches of the World Cup qualifiers with the Faroe Islands and the Hungarians, the rivals of the Spanish national team thought only about defense and only occasionally found themselves in the other half of the field.

- Can the national team of Ukraine surprise the Spanish team with something?

- We will try to put up a decent resistance. We are well aware that it is unrealistic to compete with the Spaniards in ball control, which is why we will make efforts to play reliably in defense. You will have to be patient, because you will have to run a lot without the ball, which is exhausting, and wait for your chance at the gates of the guests. We also hope for the effectiveness of our home-made products in drawing standard provisions.

- By the way, quite recently Kharkiv's Zhytlobud-1 met Real Madrid in the group tournament of the Women's Champions League. Maybe they peeked at some vulnerabilities in the Spanish?

- You know, this is a completely different tournament, in addition, "Real" is represented in the national team by only one player, the backbone - from "Barcelona", the strongest club team in Europe. Barcelona has a much higher level.

- Have you already decided on the players who will start tomorrow?

- 70 percent. Today, starting at 17.00, another training will be held at the STC. Victor Bannikov, and in the evening I will make the final decision. Taking this opportunity, I invite fans to come and support the national team in Kovalivka. Together we will try to give the Spaniards a fight.