Oleg Walkman Shustenko, the manager of Ukraine's FIFA eFootball team, has summed up the 2022/2023 season in which the blue and yellow team made history by qualifying for the FIFAe Nations Cup 2023 playoffs for the first time ever and came just a step away from reaching world prominence.

— I positively evaluate the team's performance in this season. Against the backdrop of all previous attempts by Ukraine's FIFA national team, this is the best result yet. Not only did our eFootball players find themselves among Europe's top 16 teams, but they also secured a prize finish in the playoffs.

— What was lacking for the Ukrainian national team to secure a spot in the finals of the FIFAe Nations Cup 2023 playoff tournament? Were there any difficulties during preparation or did the level of opponents turn out to be higher than ours?

— We had our first experience with a bootcamp before the playoffs matches. As for the conditions for preparation, everything was at a high level. Perhaps if we hadn't had this gathering, problems might have arisen in getting out of the group into the upper bracket. I believe that the Ukrainian Association of eFootball should continue to organize such gatherings. 

Regarding the results of matches against France and Finland in the upper bracket, everything ended as expected for Ukraine's national team. We had a plan for the game which unfortunately did not materialize. These are top teams, and we are still weaker than them at this point. But we can fix it, and time is needed.

— What is the secret to success of the current squad of Ukraine's national team? The boys were quite experienced in pairs, found themselves in more equal conditions due to low ping or perhaps the team got lucky?

— There is no secret. These two players have played together very well and as a result there were no psychological problems within the team. Andriy CIG ST92 Shakalov — individually, he's a very strong player who deserves to play in the finals of major tournaments. Oleksandr CIG Grishay Grishay fits perfectly into the team's playing model. The leadership qualities of the captain plus quality communication within the national team brought results.

— The team participated in three qualification stages and stopped just one step away from the finals of the FIFAe Nations Cup 2023. How does a professional eFootball player deal with such situations?

— It's always sad. No matter how strong you are as a player, whether it was your luck or not. It's always disappointing to be eliminated just one step away from the final quota. The boys dreamed of making it into the decisive stage of the world championship. They didn't even care about the prize fund question. But alas, this never happened. Nevertheless, Ukraine's national team will eventually make it to the eFootball World Cup.

— How do you evaluate the progress in the development of eFootball in Ukraine considering the results of the selection for the national team last autumn 2022 and the final results of the team in the season-2022/2023? Is this a pair of top FIFA players today?

— It's hard to evaluate, as many eFootball players are currently not playing due to the war. In individual competitions this year, only two players made it through to qualification — Andriy CIG ST92 Shakalov and Yaroslav ECF_BlackStar98x Gurmak. There used to be a lot more. So from that point of view, there is regression.

As for team competitions, Ukraine showed decent results. Of course, we are talking about the Ukrainian national team in FIFA and eClub, where Yaroslav ECF_BlackStar98x Gurmak and Denis ECF_Phoenix Ivtushyk fought to the last quota.