On Monday, March 25, the Olympic Ukraine team will play a friendly match against Japan U-23 as part of their preparation for the football tournament at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Our team after a four-day training camp in Szeged, Hungary, made an overnight trip to Kyushu Island, to Kitakyushu City in Fukuoka Prefecture. Unfortunately, not everyone could make it — defender Andriy Bulizha of "Karpatski" injured his knee during one of the trainings, so Ruslan Rotan now has 19 players at his disposal.

Our delegation is staying at Rihga Royal Hotel Kokura, with theoretical sessions and training planned for Saturday and Sunday. The match between Japan (U-23) vs Ukraine (U-23) will take place on March 25 at Kitakyushu Stadium and start at 19:15 local time (12:15 Kyiv time).

Meanwhile, Japan, which is preparing for the AFC U-23 Championship 2024 (also a qualifier for the Olympics), played a friendly match against Mali's national team on Friday. Both teams have already secured their spots in France — the African side won comfortably with a score of 3:1 (Sangare, 34; Tunkara, 53; Traore, 90 - Hirakawa, 2).

Composition of Ukraine's Olympic Team

Goalkeepers: Kirill Fesyun ("Kolos" Kovalivka), Georgiy Yermakov ("Oleksandria").

Defenders: Anton Bol («Zorya» Luhansk), Mar’yan Farina («Metalist 1925» Kharkiv), Roman Dydik («Rukh» Lviv), Maxim Dyachuk («Dynamo» Kyiv), Oleksandr Martinyuk («Oleksandria»), Yegor Mazenko («Slask», Poland). 

Halfbacks: Eldar Kuliyev ("Zira", Azerbaijan), Ivan Zhelezko ("Lechia", Poland), Artem Kulakovskyy, Kyrylo Sygiev, Denis Shostak, Artem Shulyansky (all — «Oleksandria»), Oleksiy Nazarenko («Poleshchuk» Zhytomyr), Oleksii Syts, Oleh Fedor (both — «Rukh» Lviv), Oleksiy Kashchuk («Shakhtar» Donetsk).

Striker: Mykola Kucharievych ("Swansea", Wales).

On March 20, Ukraine learned their opponents for the football tournament at the 2024 Olympics. Drawn in the fourth pot, they will face Argentina, Morocco and the third team from Asia in Group V. Their matches will take place on July 24th, 27th and 30th.

2024 Olympics. Men's Football Tournament

Group A: France, USA, winner of the intercontinental play-off, New Zealand.

Group V: Argentina, Morocco, AFC-3, Ukraine.

Group C: AFC-2, Spain, Egypt, Dominican Republic.

Group D: AFC-1, Paraguay, Mali, Israel.

Schedule for Group V

24.07.2024

Argentina — Morocco (16:00, Saint-Etienne)

AFC-3 — Ukraine (20:00, Lyon)

27.07.2024

Argentina — AFC-3 (16:00, Lyon)

Ukraine — Morocco (18:00, Saint-Etienne)

30.07.2024

Ukraine — Argentina (18:00, Lyon)

Morocco — AFC-3 (18:00, Nice)

Match times are in Kyiv time. 

The two best teams from Group V will advance to face the representatives of Group A.

The format of the Olympic tournament is traditional: competition in four groups with four teams each, followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals, third-place match and final (September 9, Paris, "Parc des Princes").

As a reminder, last summer our team achieved an historic success — securing Ukraine's first-ever spot in the football tournament at the Olympics after defeating France (3:1) in the quarter-finals of Euro 2023 (U-21) and advancing to the semi-finals. Along with Ukraine, Spain and Israel also earned their spots for the Summer Games 2024 through the youth Euro 2023.

As of now, 12 participants in the men's football tournament at the 2024 Olympics are already known. They will compete from July 24 to August 9 in seven cities across France: Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Saint-Etienne, Nice and Nantes. According to the rules, players born after January 1, 2001 are eligible to participate. Additionally, each team can include up to three older players.

In total, 16 teams will compete in the tournament: France as hosts, three from Europe (Ukraine, Spain, Israel), three from Africa (Morocco, Egypt, Mali), three from Asia (to be determined by May 3), two from South America (Paraguay, Argentina), two from CONCACAF (USA, Dominican Republic), one from Oceania (New Zealand) and the winner of a play-off between the fourth-placed teams in Africa (Guinea) and Asia.