The Ukrainian under-19 futsal team is preparing for the main qualifying round of Euro 2023 (U-19) and will play against their Hungarian counterparts, according to a press release from the Ukrainian Futsal Association.

Two friendly matches will take place on February 15-16 in Debrecen at "Phoenix Arena". By the way, this is where the final tournament of the European Women's Futsal Championship will be held in March as well.

We remind you that on November 3rd, there was a draw for the preliminary and main qualifying rounds of Euro 2023 (U-19) futsal. As a result, Ukraine's youth team was placed in Group 2 of the main round where they will face Romania, Serbia, and the winner of Group B from the preliminary round (Montenegro, San Marino, Gibraltar). The mini-tournament will be hosted by Serbia between March 21-26.

Accordingly, Montenegro's team has qualified to our group from the preliminary round, having won their mini-tournament which took place on January 19-21 in Gibraltar. The Balkan team defeated San Marino (2:1) and Gibraltar (6:5).

The venue for the final tournament of Euro 2022/2023 futsal among under-19 boys has been determined as Poreč (Croatia). In addition to the hosts, Croatia, seven teams will participate in the finals from September 3rd to 10th. The format of the final tournament remains the same: eight participants will play in two groups of four teams each, with the top two from each group advancing to the semifinals.

The inaugural European U-19 futsal championship was held in Rijeka in 2019 and the second edition took place in Hain in 2022 — both times (2019, 2022) Spain's team emerged as champions. The second championship was initially planned for 2021 but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ukrainian team participated in both final tournaments. In 2019, Vitaliy Odegov's wards secured third place in their group, and in 2022 they were eliminated in the semifinals .