The upcoming two home matches of the UEFA Nations League will be held in Łódź, Poland. Our national team has already played there before — against the hosts in September 2010. The day before, head coach Myron Markevych left the squad, and his first assistant, Yuriy Kalitvinets, took the team to Łódź.

Back then, both teams were preparing for their home Euro 2012 matches. The match ended in a draw, although the hosts came closer to victory. Yevhen Seleznyov scored his fifth goal for the national team in injury time.

This was the second night draw of Ukraine's main squad on Polish soil after two attempts. However, if we look closely, it was actually the third — following three.

But the friendly match on November 18, 1992, which took place in Zamość (the Polish version of the city's name is Zamość), was played under a very interesting category called "club teams." It ended with an extremely goal-laden draw — 3:3. However, it did not make its way into FIFA’s records due to its status as a match between club teams. This game is only remembered by experts in the history of domestic football.

At that time, our national team was already led by Oleg Bazilevich. Ukraine played with this lineup: Shutkov, Popov, Yakovenko, Dyravka, Grytsyna, Polunin, Pokhlebaev, Kandaurov (Zuyenko, 88), Mintenko, Golovan (Bukel, 90). Golovan, Pokhlebaev, and Popov scored the goals.

For some players (Zuyenko, Mintenko, Golovan), this was their first and only appearance in Ukraine's national team (though it was a club team squad). The rest became the backbone of the team in 1993 when Bazilevich started his official work.

It is worth noting that our national team has never lost an official tournament match in Poland. We conceded to Poland at various levels in Ukraine, but only in a friendly match in November 2020 did we lose on Polish soil.

We also played the first and only home qualifier match on Polish territory — against Kosovo's team — and won without much trouble in Kraków.

All Matches of Ukraine's National Team on Polish Grounds

We add that the UEFA Nations League match between Ukraine and Armenia on June 11 will start at 4 PM Kyiv time, while the game against Ireland on June 14 — at 9:45 PM.