Ukrainian esports footballer Andriy CIG_ST92_UA Shakalov won group G of the qualification for the UEFA eEuro 2024 and secured one of eight spots in the European championship, which will take place this summer in Germany.

On March 16-17, the qualifying stage of the European Championship took place, with game series held in a 1vs1 format using FC 24 on PS5. Fifty-one winners from national selections across European countries participated in the qualification—including Andriy CIG_ST92_UA Shakalov, who became the strongest in the selection for Ukraine's team with FC 24.

Based on the results of the draw, Ukraine was placed in group G and faced representatives from Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Northern Ireland, Wales, the Faroe Islands, and Kosovo.

Over two days, the Ukrainian player played one match against each opponent. Each confrontation consisted of two games (home and away), with their scores forming the final result of the match. In case of a tie, the esports players faced an additional game under the "golden goal" rule.

Andriy CIG_ST92_UA Shakalov started the qualification with a crushing victory over xOL-Mitrovic_10 from the Faroe Islands—11:2 (5:2, 6:0).

The next confrontation, against xKaiHarris from Wales, was the only one where the player of blue and yellow suffered an unfortunate defeat. The two games ended in a draw (4:4, 3:3), and it took a golden goal in the additional match to give victory to the Welshman.

The first game day concluded with a loud sensation as our esports footballer did not leave any chance for OllelitoYT from Sweden—9:3 (4:1, 5:2), and he also won against kossu72 from Finland—8:7 (5:4, 3:3).

The main confrontation of the second game day was a match with BorussiaBradley from Belgium for first place in the group. The two games ended in a draw (2:2, 2:2), and it was Ukraine's player who scored the golden goal in the third game.

Andriy CIG_ST92_UA Shakalov concluded the second game day with victories of 9:5 (3:4, 6:1) over JoseHamster from Northern Ireland and 8:4 (7:1, 1:3) against Uliks Polloshka from Kosovo.

Thus, the Ukrainian player finished his group G participation with 18 points. And based on equal points with the Belgian player, it was his victory in the head-to-head match that allowed him to occupy first place and secure a spot at UEFA eEuro 2024.

"This is a historic achievement for our team in the EA SPORTS discipline! We have never qualified for the finals of international tournaments in this game.

I want to greet and thank Andriy Shakalov for his incredible play! In an extremely tough format among the best players in Europe, Andriy achieved what others thought was impossible. This achievement is solely his merit and a fair result of his professional development over these years,"—commented on the qualification results Vladyslav Shovkovskyi, President of the Ukrainian Association of Electronic Football.

First game day:

Second game day: