Head coach of the youth team of Ukraine U-19 Sergey Nagornyak summed up the performance of his team in the elite round of Euro 2023 qualifiers.
The youth team of Ukraine (footballers not older than 2004) performed unsuccessfully in the elite round of Euro 2023 (U-19) qualification, losing in all matches of their group to Luxembourg (1:2), Denmark (1:2) and Spain ( 0:4). Sergey Nagornyak, head coach of the Blue-and-Yellows, spoke about the reasons for this result.
– There is no result, and the coach is to blame, – said Nagornyak. – Although, by and large, there were objective reasons. It took the team 36 hours to get to the competition venue in Spain, and we had only one training session. Of course, this also affects the result, even despite the level of the opponent. In addition, the injuries of the leading players who could not come were tangible for us. Despite this, I am grateful to my wards, who tried to look decent.
For example, already in the first match against Luxembourg, it was clear that somewhere in the middle of the first half, the guys started to sag. In the second match against Denmark, I think the score was wrong, but the Ukrainian team was not lucky. A duel with Spain is difficult to comment on. Already in the 6th minute we lost – 0:2. In this meeting everything was against us. Yes, and we must admit that the Spaniards were stronger than us. In general, I think that Spain will become one of the main contenders for victory in the European Championship.
