Head coach of Ukraine's youth team (players born in 2008 or later) Oleksandr Sitnik shared his impressions from the team's performance in the second qualifying round for Euro-2025 (U-17).

The Ukrainian U-17 youth team failed to qualify for the final stage of the 2025 European Championship. In their group, they secured third place.

Why did this happen? The official website of the Ukrainian Football Association asked head coach Oleksandr Sitnik.

— Mr. Oleksandr, what will be your conclusion after the team's performance in the second qualifying round for the Euro?

— Of course, there is disappointment because we wanted to perform better. But we have what we have. We understood that we had a serious group with strong opponents. Despite this, we set ourselves maximum goals—securing first place or at least qualifying for the World Cup. Perhaps we could have achieved more than third place, but we lacked some time to train.

— Was the first match of the tournament, against Croatia, key for your team?

— Of course. The draw also had an impact on the results. We opened the tournament against the hosts, then faced strong Italy, and only in the third game did we meet a team that was slightly lower than our first two opponents. And such mini-tournaments always start better with a positive result to build strategy on.

I already mentioned that we lacked some time. We arrived two days before the start of the games, and it was difficult to understand in what condition our footballers were, especially those playing abroad. Statistics are one thing, but seeing an athlete with your own eyes is quite another. And working on set pieces near our goal also didn't work out, which affected our results as well. We can say that we approached the match against Croatia not in optimal shape. Although if you look at the game itself, it was even.

Photo by Oleg Kozin

— It's sad to lose a win, as it was in the match against Italy?

— Very much so. Our footballers had an incredible mindset for this game. We knew who we were playing against, but we needed a victory. The game was tense. Our boys were more affected by the result since Italy already had three points.

Despite giving away possession to our opponents, in the first half we played at a very high level. The team didn't give anything to the opponent and managed to score themselves.

The game was intense and energy-consuming, so towards the end it was visible that our boys were tired. Moreover, substitutions did not meet expectations of the coaching staff, we couldn't move the ball away from our goal. We lacked perseverance, focus on set pieces. After conceding a goal in the 90th minute, our players got upset, emotionally this is difficult, while Italy seized momentum and scored another goal right after.

But we also need to go through such experiences. In the dressing room I thanked the team for their effort; they left everything on the field.

— How did you manage to prepare the team for the match against Slovakia?

— After the game with Italy, we worked a lot with players on psychology, communicated, had lots of theory, even made emotional training sessions to motivate the team. And I'm glad that the footballers listened. We managed to recharge the team for battle. This is what I say knowing how the match against Slovakia went. Otherwise, we wouldn't have wanted to drop down to League B.

Perhaps there were issues with realization, but the winning goal at the end of the game, so to speak, freed our players from a burden; the team breathed out. That's the kind of confidence we lacked in the first two qualifying matches to put an early stop.

— The next official competitions for this team will be in autumn 2026 when they play in the first round of Euro-2027 (U-19). What are the immediate plans for the team?

— Official starts are still far off, but to maintain connections, we will hold training camps, with the next one scheduled for June.

EURO-2025 (U-17). Second qualifying round. Group A1

March 19, 2025

Ukraine — Croatia — 1:2

Italy — Slovakia — 1:0

March 22, 2025

Italy — Ukraine — 2:1

Croatia — Slovakia — 2:1

March 25, 2025

Slovakia — Ukraine — 0:1

Croatia — Italy — 1:2

Final standings