Taras Stepanenko: "Ruslan Rotan lives by football, playing with England, and we are all ready to help him"

21.03.2023 20:05

Photo by Pavlo Kubanov

Midfielder of the national team of Ukraine, Taras Stepanenko, talked about the team's preparation for its first match in the Euro-2024 qualifier against England.

On the morning of March 21, the Ukrainian national team held a theoretical session in London, after which they started training at the base of the EPL club "Brentford". The players worked in different groups depending on the previous loads. Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Taras Stepanenko spoke about the start of training in the blue-yellow camp.

"I haven't seen many guys since the end of September. That's why we talked a lot yesterday, and even at lunch and dinner. I am always happy to be in the team, meet friends, talk and find out how they are doing. 

We are working now at Brentford's training ground, and I can say that it is a real European base. It is small, but the main thing is that there are excellent lawns, a good fitness hall, that is, everything you need for football. Currently, we travel a lot with Shakhtar, we train in Poland at the base of Warsaw Legia, we have experience.

In Europe, such cozy bases are now being built everywhere, where everything for football is concentrated. And since "Brentford" plays in the English Premier League, of course, he has good conditions. We are satisfied with everything. For this time of year, the condition of the lawn is excellent, because we see that there are not so many good fields in the championship of Ukraine. Here, the field cannot be said to be ideal, but on a 10-point scale it will be somewhere on a seven. 

The first training session under the leadership of Ruslan Rotan was aimed at the recovery of the boys who have played a lot recently. Besides, we had quite a long drive yesterday. Those who were less involved played football and practiced tactical exercises. We don't have much time before the match with England, and Rotan should prepare us as best as possible. Therefore, everything will be more intense, because he has to unite the team after a long break and implement his vision of football.  

He is a fairly active coach, young and energetic, who played football for many years and then switched to coaching. Rotan already has his experience, so he understands that now he is the helmsman of the national team, and realizes what responsibility he has. He lives by football, lives by the game with England, and we are all ready to help him. Even some injured players flew to support the team. We are doing everything to get a good result," said Taras Stepanenko. 

We will remind you that the Euro 2024 selection match between England and Ukraine will take place on March 26 in London (starting at 19.00:XNUMX Kyiv time).