Ukraine's National Football Team Will Play in Dublin Today

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These are difficult times for Ukrainian football fans. Against the background of events taking place in the country, football is insignificant. But from the point of view of the football world, the national team is now overcoming an extremely dramatic path.

The first test was a match with the Scottish national team. Ukrainian players were extremely motivated. The first part of the match turned out very well for the Ukrainian national team, it won it with a score of 2-0. But in the second Scots returned the intrigue, scoring one goal. However, the Ukrainian team was able to keep the advantage and finish off the opponent at the last minute. The final score is 3-1 in favor of the national team of Ukraine.

I'm having trouble watching this match. During the war, the Ukrainian government made watching TV channels free, but it turned out that this rule does not apply to football matches. By the time I resolved this situation, most of the first half had passed.

My impressions of the game? I was surprised by the Scottish national team. Anarchy reigned in defense of this team and Ukrainian players cut it like daggers. I expected a much stronger game from the Scots. Probably so they decided to support Ukraine in difficult times :)

Next was the decisive game against Wales. After the victory over Scotland, I was optimistic about this game, as a result of which the whole of Ukraine hoped to get a ticket to the World Cup. But in this game the Ukrainian team was defeated 1-0. There were tears, despair and disappointment on the field.

Reasons? Some will say that the judge is guilty, some will say that they were not lucky. In my opinion, the reason is the lack of playing practice among some players, because the Ukrainian championship has been canceled. As a result, the physical condition of some players is not in the best condition and after a tense match with Scotland, they did not have time to recover. When a player is tired, he makes mistakes, he has little initiative, he is ineffective.

I intentionally do not describe the course of these matches, because such information can be found on any sports site. I will mention only the personal tragedy of Andriy Yarmolenko, who became the author of the only goal, unfortunately an own goal. Can he be accused of anything? Absolutely not. The player did his best 100%.

Within a few days, the Ukrainian national team met with the Irish national team. This time in the League of Nations. After the moral catastrophe caused by the failure to reach the final part of the World Cup, the Ukrainian players were not ready for the match either psychologically or physically. Therefore, the head coach had to release a reserve for the match.

The reserve squad is not a disrespect to the opponent, it was a necessity because the main players could not play. But the Irish could not take advantage of this situation. As a result, they lost 1-0. The fate of the match was decided by one completely random goal scored from the standard.

In defense of the reserve of the Ukrainian national team, I can say that in this match they still looked more interesting than their opponents. The Ukrainians may not have had a clear advantage, but they still created more scoring chances and attacked more.

Three days later, the Ukrainian national team had to play the match again. This time it rival was the Armenian national team. Despite the score, the match against the national team of Armenia was not easy. This time more main players came on the field. It is interesting that this time we saw Oleksandr Zinchenko on the left flank of the Ukrainian team's defense. Previously, he sometimes performed these functions in the national team, but in order to fully take this position from the start, I remember only one match - the winning game against Sweden at Euro 2020, where Zinchenko, by the way, scored a goal.

The first half ended in a 0-0 draw. In the second half, the Ukrainians finally broke the resistance of the Armenians and scored three goals. The final score of the match is 3-0 in favor of the Ukrainian national team. Not a bad result, given the recent painful defeat by Wales.

After the match, goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov announced the end of his career. This is his second announcement, because due to lack of goalkeepers he had to return to the national team.

Today in the fourth round of the League of Nations the national team of Ukraine will play against Ireland. The match will take place in the Polish city of Lodz and will start at 21:45 Kyiv time.

Ireland is a power team, its style is characterized by a lot of struggle. That is why it will be difficult for Ukrainians. In addition, they have losses - goalkeeper Heorhiy Bushchan and midfielder Taras Stepanenko will not play in the match - they are injured. In view of this, the head coach of the Ukrainian team promised that in this match will get a chance to those players who did not play in the decisive match against Wales.

The match promises to be interesting, so I invite you to watch it.