Yuriy Moroz: "The team didn't show their true strength, losing many challenges and making numerous mistakes"

"We planned that we had nowhere to retreat. We needed only a victory. What happened — I don’t understand myself. Youth football, youthful psyche, guys were overwhelmed... The team didn't show their true strength, losing many challenges and making numerous mistakes.

In the episode with the first goal, we didn't clear the ball, made a mistake, and conceded that penalty ourselves. Then the boys seemed to pull themselves together, some moments appeared, and some things started to work out. But for every game in the final part, you need to gather moral and fighting qualities. On one hand, reaching the final tournament is already a success. Guys did well. However, you need to play differently in the championship itself.

The performance of our youth in various clubs? Perhaps this is also one of the reasons for the failure. You can look for different reasons, but in my opinion, there was no aggression, and no desire to win on the pitch. You need to fight for every inch, and in the episode with the third goal, one player beat several opponents...

Everyone is in equal conditions, but we somewhat underperformed. Maybe we gave too many advances and talked about the future. I’ll say this: the boys did well to reach the final part. But here everyone tries hard, everyone knows how to play football.

I didn't expect such a game, I thought it would be a bit better. But we have what we have at the moment. Regarding the lineup for the match against Cyprus, we will look at the condition of the players and think about how to make our team ready for this match," said Yuriy Moroz.

Euro-2024 (U-17) Final Tournament

Group A

May 20, 2024

Serbia — Ukraine — 1:0

Cyprus — Czech Republic — 0:5

May 23, 2024

Ukraine — Czech Republic — 1:3

Cyprus — Serbia — 1:3

Standings

May 26, 2024

Ukraine vs. Cyprus (20:30, Larnaca)

Czechia vs. Serbia (20:30, Larnaca)

Quarter-finals

May 29, 2024

1. A1 vs. B2 (17:30 or 20:00, Larnaca)
2. B1 vs. A2 (17:30 or 20:00, Larnaca)

May 30, 2024

1. C1 vs. D2 (18:00 or 20:30, Larnaca)
2. D1 vs. C2 (18:00 or 20:30, Larnaca)

Semi-finals

June 2, 2024

1. Winner 1 vs. Winner 3 (18:00 or 20:30, Larnaca)
2. Winner 2 vs. Winner 4 (18:00 or 20:30, Larnaca)

Final

June 5, 2024

Winner 5 vs. Winner 6 (20:30, Limassol)

All match times are Kyiv time.