Euro 2016 Preview - Ukraine

Team: Ukraine

Manager: Mykhailo Fomenko

Group: C

Other teams in group: Germany, Northern Ireland, Poland.

 

THE SQUAD

A stable and established squad comprising mostly home-based players. Yevhen Konoplyanka was an unused substitute for Sevilla in the 2016 Europa League final against Liverpool in Basel.  Marko Devic, the naturalised Ukrainian who was born in Serbia, is omitted – the striker had an impressive 2014-15 season with Rubin Kazan in Russia but was culled after he refused to play in a friendly against Cameroon that had been organised for the day of his wedding.

Olekandr Zinchenko is raw for an international squad, aged just 19 and with just a couple of full appearances to his name, but he has already scored once at the highest level, having played for every age group for his country since the Under 16s.

 

The squad in full:



Goalkeepers: Denys Boyko (Besiktas), Andriy Pyatov (Shakhtar Donetsk), Nikita Shevchenko (Zorya Luhansk).

Defenders: Artem Fedetskiy (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Yevhen Khacheridi (Dynamo Kiev), Olexandr Kucher (Shakhtar Donetsk), Yaroslav Rakitskiy (Shakhtar Donetsk), Vyacheslav Shevchuk (Shakhtar Donetsk), Bohdan Butko (Amkar Perm).

Midfielders: Ruslan Rotan (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Serhiy Rybalka (Dynamo Kiev), Denys Garmash (Dynamo Kiev), Serhiy Sydorchuk (Dynamo Kiev), Andriy Yarmolenko (Dynamo Kiev), Yevhen Konoplyanka (Sevilla), Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (Kairat Almaty), Taras Stepanenko (Shakhtar Donetsk), Viktor Kovalenko (Shakhtar Donetsk), Olexandr Zinchenko (Ufa), Oleksandr Karavayev (Zorya Luhansk).

Forwards: Roman Zozulya (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Pylyp Budkivskiy (Zorya Luhansk), Yevhen Seleznyov (Shakhtar Donetsk).

 

 



HOW THEY GOT HERE

Ukraine finished third in Group C, behind group winners Spain and Slovakia.  They ensured qualification with a 3-1 aggregate play-off win over Slovenia.  Ukraine won 2-0 in the home leg and secured a 1-1 draw away in Slovenia. 

 

 

KEY PLAYERS TO WATCH OUT FOR

Yevhen Seleznyov, who scored one of the goals in the play-off against Slovenia.

 

Centre forward Roman Zozulya, who has scored four goals in his 25 appearances.

 

Star wingers, Andriy Yarmolenko (top scorer for Ukraine in the qualifying group) and Yevhen Konoplyanka.

 

 

WHERE THEY ARE PLAYING AND STAYING

Ukraine will kick-off their tournament against World Cup holders Germany in Lille on June 12th.  The Ukrainians will move to Lille to take on Northern Ireland four days later on June 16th.  The final game of group will see Ukraine face Poland at 5.00 p.m. on June 21st in the Stade Velodrome in Marseille.

 

 

THREE INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE TEAM

They like to play an ultra-defensive. 4-2-3-1 formation.

 

They kept six clean sheets in ten qualifying group games.

 

Euro 2012 on home soil was Ukraine’s first appearance at the tournament. They failed to get out of a group that also included England, Sweden and France.

 

 

THEIR RECENT FORM.

The Ukrainians had four warm up games against Cyprus, Wales, Romania and Albania.

 

1-0 home victories over Cyprus and Wales in March were followed by a seven goal thriller away to Romania in late May.  Ukraine were 4-1 up at one stage against the normally defensively competent Romanians and held on to win 4-3. Ukraines’s final warm up game on June 3rd was a 3-1 away win against fellow qualifiers Albania.

 

First game: Germany, Sunday 12th June.

 

 

    About Harry Manning

    Love of League of Ireland football began when the once-mighty Sporting Fingal FC came to be in 2008 and started playing their games not too far from where I grew up.

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