Dmytro Mykhaylenko: "The group we got is absolutely normal"

18.04.2024 14:18

On April 17, the draw for the final stage of Euro-2024 (U-19) took place, according to the results of which the youth national team of Ukraine have been drawn to group A, where they will play with the teams of Northern Ireland (host of the competition), Norway and Italy.

In an interview with the UAF press service, the head coach of the blue and yellow team, Dmytro Mykhaylenko, shared his thoughts on future opponents. Watch the full version of the interview soon on the official UAF YouTube channel.

"There were no worries before the draw," said Dmytro Mykhaylenko. — A good group, a good choice. It may be trite to say that there are no weak teams, but it seems to be the case. The group we got is absolutely normal.

I watched only one national team - Italy, when we were preparing for the match against Switzerland. By the way, the Swiss won - 1:0. Italy played with a big advantage, but conceded. I want to say that you can play with everyone and you can beat everyone.

I have experience: as a fan, I was at the game between the U-17 teams of Italy and Ukraine in Cyprus. The Italians won that time, but there were no players there who would prevail over ours. They beat us due to tactics, smarter actions in the last 25 meters of the field, they played very clearly in their penalty area. But it was not a national team that had some huge advantage - ordinary people who pay a lot of attention to tactics.

Will our other opponents play athletic football? Northern Ireland, maybe so. As for Norway, gone are the days when they played such simple football. Now they are changing their approach at the youth level — playing combination football, albeit athletic.

We already had to play against the Norwegians, and they showed a very decent level. There are a lot of football players playing in leading European clubs, even at a young age. They are now donors of Dutch football, many performers go to Germany, England. I think this is a very worthy opponent.

Results of the draw of the final tournament Euro-2024 (U-19)

Group A: Northern Ireland, Norway, Italy, Ukraine.

Group B: Denmark, Turkey, France, Spain.

We will remind you that on March 26, our team effectively finished the fight in the elite round of Euro-2024 selection (U-19) with a victory over Switzerland (3:0). Before that, Dmytro Mykhaylenko's wards defeated North Macedonia (2:0) and Latvia (3:0). The blue-yellow team won their group with the maximum score and earned a ticket to the final tournament of the European Championship, which will be held on July 15-28 in Northern Ireland with the participation of eight national teams. 

The two best teams from each quartet will advance to the semi-finals, and the main trophy will be drawn on July 28 at Windsor Park in Belfast. The match for the third place is not scheduled, but for the fifth place it will take place, since Europe will delegate five representatives to the 2025 World Cup among U-20 teams, which will be held in Chile with the participation of 24 national teams. So the winner of the match between the third teams of the groups will join the four semi-finalists. Like the semi-final matches, it is scheduled for July 25. 

Let's add that for the Ukrainian national team U-19 this will be the eighth final tournament European Championship. And in 2019 Ukraine won gold at the World Championship among the U-20 youth national teams.