In their second match of this season's Nations League, the Ukraine national team secured a convincing victory over Armenia (3-0). And on June 14 in Łódź, Poland, the blue-and-yellow will play their next game — against Ireland.

Half-back of "Dnipro-1" Oleksandr Pykhalyonok explained why they managed to win in the previous match: "Armenia played very narrowly and tightly in defense with a 5-3-2 formation, so it was very difficult to break through their defense. After halftime, the coach made adjustments, and our game improved in the second half. When teams close up, it's always hard. This applies not only to the national team but also to league matches when all of the opponent's players stay behind the ball line. It's tough to break through their defense.

Regarding Zinchenko's position, he played on the left and occasionally moved up a bit because there was space in front of him. This sometimes worked, so why not?

The absence of Yarmolenko is a big loss, as he is an extremely experienced player. I think he would have helped against Armenia.

Malinovskiy's goal? Sometimes we create such moments, but I think it was improvisation. When you score against teams that play defensively, this goal becomes key because the opponent opens up. Everyone emotionally reacted to Karavaev's goal. I believe this helped the team; we rallied together.

The victory over Armenia will add confidence before Ireland. When you win, it's easy to prepare for upcoming matches."

Half-back of "Shakhtar" Mykhailo Mudryk played in both previous games as a starter. The young player believes that the team still has energy for the next encounter with Ireland:

"It's always difficult to break through such a defense when a team sets up an 'auto bus.' During halftime, Oleksandr Vasyl'ovych said that the wingers needed to come inside more often to give more space to the full-backs so we could make more passes into the penalty area.

Of course, there is energy for the next match. We need to recover well, then there will be a pre-match training session. We have to go out and win. The camp has been quite long, but this is football, what we love.

We have an advantage over Ireland because we are playing at home. Many Ukrainians, our fans, will come. We will play for them. It's always great when the whole stadium cheers for you."

As a reminder, the match of the fourth round of the Nations League between Ukraine and Ireland will take place on June 14 in Łódź at the LKS Stadium named after Vladyslav Krul (kick-off — 9:45 PM).