“Rishi, we need F-16s”: Ukraine lost to England at Wembley, but fighters are more important (photo)

On Sunday, March 26, the England team hosted the Ukraine national team at Wembley in the first qualifying match of the 2024 European Championship in Group C.

1000 Ukrainian refugees and the British, who provided them with accommodation, were able to participate in the match free of charge.

Before the start of the match, Ukrainian football players unfurled a banner in support of peace, and the British paid homage to former national team defender and 1966 world champion George Cohen, who died at the age of 83 on 23 December 2022.

Starting rosters:

England team: 1. Jordan Pickford, 2. Kyle Walker, 3. Ben Chilwell, 5. John Stones, 6. Harry Maguire, 4. Declen Rice, 7. Bukayo Saka B., 8. Jordan Henderson, 10. Jude Bellingham, 11. James Maddison, 9. Harry Kane.

Ukraine Team: 12. Anatoly Trubin, 3. Alexander Svatok, 16. Vitaly Mikolenko, 21. Alexander Karavaev, 22. Nikolay Matvienko, 6. Taras Stepanenko, 7. Mikhail Mudrik, 8. Ruslan Malinovsky, 17. Alexander Zinchenko, 20. Georgy Sudakov , 9. Roman Yaremchuk

Rotan did not put Tsygankov on the base

And about. Ruslan Rotan, the coach of the Ukrainian national team, did not put Viktor Tsygankov in the top 11, who showed a good form in the last matches of the Catalan Girona, who played for Örnekler.

The former coach of the Ukrainian youth team decided to saturate the middle of the field, where Georgy Sudakov appeared, almost the first match of the national team at the base and certainly the first such match against one of the strongest teams. in its field in the world.

Maybe that’s why the coach relied on counter attacks and Sudakov’s ability to pass into sparse zones to get past Mikhail Mudrik. A first player appeared in the center of the defense, the central defender of Dnipro-1 Oleksandr Svatok. The place at the gate was taken by Anatoly Trubin.

The British immediately began to test the defensive formations of the visibly nervous Ukrainians. For example, Svatok, who made his debut, almost brought a penalty in the first 10 minutes of the match, and although he corrected himself after a while, the tension in the Ukraine penalty area did not decrease.

In the 15th minute, the first of several dangerous events created by the Ukrainians took place. From the middle of the field, Zinchenko sent Roman Yaremchuk into the gap, who missed the goal despite being offside.

In the 25th minute, English forward Harry Kane missed the right wing pass, which was dominated by Bukayo Saka and the real threat to Trubin’s goal, was inside the goalkeeper’s area. There was a shot, but after 10 minutes Saka took the ball to his side and hung freely at Kane’s foot, who sent the ball into the net.

Meanwhile, left wing Mikolenko and Mudrik, as well as English Premier League players, did not enter the selection and simply watched the development of events. Kane was not retained by Dynamo Alexander Karavaev.

Three minutes later, England took the lead 2-0. Saka was retrained from an assistant to finishing off the offensive – moving from the flank to center and sending the ball along a difficult trajectory into the far corner of Trubin, he would be powerless.

Encouraged by the British, he could have scored the third goal right away, the guards of the Ukrainian gates repulsed Kane’s blow, but between these teams the specter of defeat in the Euro 2020 quarterfinals clearly loomed over Wembley.

From the beginning of the second 45-minute period, the Ukrainians went on the offensive in an attempt to reverse the intrigue. They made their first attack into the opponent’s penalty area, whose mixing was chaotic. In response, 19-year-old Jude Bellingham deployed a comeback counterattack, in which he defeated several players in yellow uniforms as an indicator. Having lost his boots behind him, Ruslan Malinovsky tried in vain to keep up.

Still, at the start of the second half, the Ukrainians held the ball better and made several dangerous attacks on Jordan Pickford’s gates.

In the 61st minute, the blue-yellow coach made a triple substitution. Mudrik, Mikolenko, Svatok and Karavaev broke up. Out: Sobol, Tsygankov and Buyalsky, who were ignored by their previous team coaches.

But the attempt to reverse the game did not bring success.

The Whoscored analytics portal has recognized Bukayo Saka as the man of the match.

In the future, the hosts deftly “dried” the game and could have made the score devastating had it not been for Trubin’s reaction in the final minutes.

Recall that the last Ukrainian team left the European competition in the 2022/23 season. Eredivisie leader Feyenoord defeated Shakhtar at home with a score of 7:1.

Earlier it was learned that due to corruption in the football leadership, Ukraine will not be able to host the 2030 World Cup. Morocco will compete with Spain and Portugal for the right to host the world forum.