In the time constraints set by UEFA for all participants of the Euro 2024 qualification stage, there is simply no room for extensive preparation before the second match.

Yesterday, Ukraine arrived in Milan, and today they are already having an official session ahead of the game. The Italian team, which immediately departed from Skopje after a draw against North Macedonia, held their training at the FC "Milan" base in Milanello, while Ukrainians trained at San Siro.

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

The famous arena is already decorated in the colors of the national team. By the way, Italy will occupy the dressing room of "Milan," while Ukraine has been allocated another one — not the "Inter" dressing room, but a third guest one. It turns out that all visitors to San Siro are accommodated here and not in the preparation zone of either of the two home teams.

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

The match against Ukraine will be the 61st for "Squadra Azzurri" at San Siro. In the commemorative, 60th game, Italians narrowly defeated their current Euro qualifiers opponents — England (1-0) in a group stage of the Nations League. This happened almost exactly one year ago — on September 23, 2022. And a year earlier, the Apennines lost here in the semi-finals of the same Nations League to Spain, which inflicted their first official defeat at San Siro (for context — the premier match of the national team was played as far back as 1910, and since then home teams have only conceded twice in friendly matches).

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

Respecting the opponent, Ukrainian players are not overly concerned with statistics but rather focus more on what their coaching staff tells them. And head coach Serhiy Rebrov and his assistants do everything to ensure that blue-and-yellow concentrate solely on their performance.

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

Traditionally, theoretical training took place in the morning, and in the evening, the team came not only to test the pitch which was in fairly good condition. However, it is far from ideal — the grass tends to come out of the boots a bit. Nevertheless, as known, conditions are equal for both opponents.

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

The hosts found a way to do something nice for the Ukrainians during this difficult time for our country. When the national team stepped onto San Siro's pitch, one of the giant screens at the stadium displayed the message "Italian Football Federation and National Team welcome friends from Ukraine!"

Photo by Pavel Kubanov

After warm-up, during which fitness coach Vitaliy Kuliba proposed to the boys several competitive exercises on agility and attention, the team moved directly into match preparation. All 25 players present in the camp participated in this training session. An hour of work at tomorrow's venue is exactly what head coach Rebrov needs to assess player conditions and select a starting lineup from them. We will find out Rebrov's eleven for Italy tomorrow, 75 minutes before the whistle by Spanish referee Alejandro Hernandez. The list of 23 players will be announced in the morning.

As of now, 49,200 tickets have been sold for Italy vs Ukraine (San Siro can accommodate over 75 thousand spectators), and 2,200 out of 2,500 tickets for the Ukrainian sector have been purchased. Moreover, our boys know that the whole nation is supporting them, so tomorrow they are geared up to give all their strength and even more to cheer Ukraine with a positive result.

National Team Roster

Goalkeepers: Georgii Bushchan ("Dynamo" Kyiv), Anatoliy Trubin ("Benfica" Lisbon, Portugal), Andrii Lunin ("Real Madrid," Spain).

Defenders: Mykola Matviienko, Yurym Konoplyan (both — "Shakhtar" Donetsk), Dmytro Popov ("Dynamo" Kyiv), Vitalii Mykolenko ("Everton," Liverpool, England), Illia Zabarnyi ("Bournemouth," England), Serhiy Krivoschuk ("Inter Miami," USA), Bohdan Mikhaylichenko ("Dinamo Zagreb," Croatia).

Midfielders: Andrii Yarmolenko, Vitalii Buyalskyi, Oleksandr Karavaev (all — "Dynamo" Kyiv), Taras Stepanenko, Oleksandr Zubkov, Georgii Sudakov, Ihor Nazarina (all — "Shakhtar" Donetsk), Oleksandr Pikhalyonok ("Dnipro-1," Dnipropetrovsk), Oleksandr Zinchenko ("Arsenal," London, England), Viktor Tsygankov ("Girona," Spain), Mykhailo Mudryk ("Chelsea," London, England), Serhiy Sidorchuk ("Waasland-Beveren," Belgium).

Forwards: Roman Yaremchuk ("Valencia," Spain), Artem Dovbyk ("Girona," Spain), Vladyslav Vanat ("Dynamo" Kyiv).

Oleksandr Glyvinskyi, press secretary of the national team