Ruslan Malinovskyi: "You need to take the game into your own hands from the first minutes, be ready to fight"

20.03.2024 13:00

Photo of UAF press service

Midfielder of the Ukrainian national team, Ruslan Malinovskyi, shared his expectations for the upcoming match against the Bosnia and Herzegovina team in the semi-finals of the Euro 2024 selection playoffs.

The Blue and Yellows completed their pre-season in Marbella and went for an away game with Bosnians. Ruslan Malinovskyi, the midfielder of the Ukrainian national team, shared his thoughts on the eve of the match.

"I finally feel great, because I caught the virus, it was difficult. I feel very well now. We are preparing for the decisive game. Everyone is in a good mood, they have trained and worked out some points.

What are we working on? There are phases of defense and attack, standards - we practice these moments. First of all, the standards, because they are very important, many goals are scored after them. We've seen opponents concede goals like this in recent games. Therefore, it is necessary to emphasize this.

Working out a penalty? I hope there will be no post-match series. Everyone has to be ready because it's one game and anything can happen. The guys took a very responsible approach to the penalty shootout, all scored well.

Many players of the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina play in great European clubs. It is necessary to give everything on the field, first of all to be psychologically ready, because the match will not be easy. We need to take the game into our own hands from the first minutes, act very aggressively, quickly, because the Bosnian team is physically very strong. You need to be ready to fight, because winning it is 50 percent of success.

Edin Dzeko has a very high individual level. He can score the ball from the half-moment, he plays very well with his head in the penalty area. Ukrai is a dangerous football player, so we have to pay attention to that.

We went to Bosnia to acclimatize and prepare for the game. But I think it's much better that it will be cooler there, because it's more pleasant to play in such conditions," says Ruslan Malinovskyi.

As a reminder, the Euro 2024 qualification semi-final play-off encounter between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine takes place on March 21 in Zenica and starts at 20:45 local time (21:45 Kyiv time).