On May 1, the Ukraine national team began preparations for the playoff matches of the 2022 World Cup and League of Nations. Already 11 players from our team have arrived at the training camp in Bled, Slovenia, and have started training. Midfielders Taras Stepanenko of Shakhtar Donetsk, Yurii Konoplya also of Shakhtar Donetsk, and Oleksandr Pichalok of Dnipro-1 shared their impressions about the start of the gathering.

Taras Stepanenko: "We arrived at the camp right after the match in Split against Hajduk. We are in good conditions on a great base of the Slovenian national team. We have everything for quality preparation for the game with Scotland. For now, we are waiting until at least 70% of the team is assembled. It's clear that players who play in European clubs will arrive later. We will work here intensively; I think there will be many double training sessions. We have a goal and to achieve it, we need to work hard."

Shakhtar Donetsk recently played several matches, although they were friendly games and lacked the tension and focus of official encounters, we still won them, and with each subsequent match, we felt that our game tone was improving. This is good in terms of preparing for national team matches because we will look better there, and it remains only to work on achieving optimal condition.

Yuriy Konoplya: "The head coach constantly adds tension during training sessions. That's how it should be, as motivation is very important at this time. We have double training sessions going on; we are getting used to things a bit since we need to get into shape. There are such exercises where you need to think about the technique of execution, but otherwise everything is normal because I work with Ivan Bashch (the Ukraine national team's physical trainer). We've played several matches with Shakhtar, so I feel good, but there's still room for improvement."

Oleksandr Pichalok: "I am gradually getting used to the double training session schedule. We are waiting for a group of players from Kyiv Dynamo and Artem Dovbyk. There will be more people, and I think game series will start soon. Otherwise, we're slowly getting into playing condition and getting used to the local field. The conditions here are great; there's no reason to complain. The pitch is ideal, the location is simply fantastic, with mountains all around. Everything suits me very well. Today we had very good loads, but Oleksandr Vasyl'ovych says they will be even bigger tomorrow. There's no time to relax; you have to prepare. We don't have any other choice but to definitely get past Scotland. We need to cheer up our people and give them positive emotions."

Recall that the semi-final playoff match of the 2022 World Cup between the national teams of Scotland and Ukraine will take place on June 1 in Glasgow at Hampden Park stadium.