The Ukraine U-19 national team began a training camp dedicated to the qualification round of Euro 2023 (U-19). The head coach of the team, Serhiy Nagornyak, spoke about how the team will prepare for the tournament on the official website of the Ukrainian Football Association.

— Coach Serhiy Mykolayovych, what are your plans for preparing the national team for the qualification round of the European Championship?

— We don't have enough time for training, but we have to work with what we have. On the 13th, we left Kyiv and trained in Ryazew, Poland, for two days. The players who are abroad joined us then. Since we will have little time, our focus is on tactical sessions. We will leave Poland for Stockholm on Tuesday and from there go to Norrjeppa. On the 16th, we'll have a pre-match training session, and on the 17th, the tournament starts.

— Is it fair to complain about our situation?

— That's exactly how things are today. In the last three years, I've hardly assembled a team in this composition. Since the start of the pandemic caused by Covid-19, we have only had two full training sessions... So our main condition for selecting players was game practice.

— How well do you know your closest rivals?

— There are still some difficulties with this. We only have one match of Kosovo's national team from last year in our possession. But we will approach the situation so that our first game is against them, and we'll study Cyprus and Sweden during the tournament. On the other hand, it's a big problem for our rivals to figure out us (smiling). We're going into the qualification round as an unknown quantity.

— Reaching the elite round is the minimum goal for your national team?

— Despite all circumstances, our aim is to finish first in our group. And how it will turn out—we'll see, as football often has unexpected outcomes.

Ukraine U-19 National Team Roster

Goalkeepers: Yuriy-Volodymyr Herteta ("Rukh" Lviv), David Fesyuk ("Gajduk," Croatia).

Defenders: Andriy Buliza, Oleksandr Rosputynko (both — "Shakhtar" Donetsk), Artem Benedyk ("Dynamo" Kyiv), Vitaliy Khodok, Bohdan Slubik, Andriy Kiteyla, Yevhenii Pastukh (all — "Rukh" Lviv), Danylo Udod ("Al-Ain," UAE).

Midfielders: Ivan Losenko, Oleksandr Pushkarov, Oleksandr Yushchenko (all — "Shakhtar" Donetsk), Anton Tsernenko ("Dynamo" Kyiv), Oleg Fedor ("Rukh" Lviv), Yegor Yamoluyk ("Brentford," England), Ivan Varfolomeev ("Liberec," Czech Republic), Volodymyr Karabara ("Nuremberg," Germany), Anatoliy Semenets ("Recreativo," Spain).

Forwards: Igor Horbach ("Dynamo" Kyiv).

Euro 2023 (U-19). Qualification Round. Group 3

November 17, 2022

Ukraine — Kosovo (2:00 PM)

Cyprus — Sweden (7:30 PM)

November 20, 2022

Ukraine — Cyprus (2:00 PM)

Sweden — Kosovo (7:30 PM)

November 23, 2022

Kosovo — Cyprus (7:00 PM)

Sweden — Ukraine (7:00 PM)

All match times are in Kyiv time.

Euro 2023 (U-19). Qualification Round

Group 1: Czech Republic, Greece, Switzerland, Andorra.

Group 2: Turkey, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg.

Group 3: Ukraine, Sweden, Cyprus, Kosovo.

Group 4: Ireland, Hungary, Wales, Gibraltar.

Group 5: Italy, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia.

Group 6: Austria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania.

Group 7: Spain, Belgium, Albania.

Group 8: France, Scotland, Iceland, Kazakhstan.

Group 9: England, Denmark, Georgia, Montenegro.

Group 10: Norway, Serbia, North Macedonia, San Marino.

Group 11: Croatia, Israel, Finland, Faroe Islands.

Group 12: Germany, Slovakia, Belarus, Armenia.

Group 13: Netherlands, Slovenia, Northern Ireland, Moldova.

The top two teams from each group and the best third-placed team (based on results against the first and second-placed teams in their group) will join Portugal for the elite round in spring 2023. The Maltese national team has a direct entry to the final stage as hosts of the tournament, along with seven winners from the groups of the elite round.