The head coach of Ukraine's U-17 national team (players born in 2005 or later), Oleg Kuznetsov, has no complaints about his players' performance during the elite round qualification for the European Championship.

After the last match of the elite round qualifier for Euro-2022 (U-17) against Italy (1:3), head coach Oleg Kuznetsov summed up this confrontation and the tournament as a whole. Unfortunately, blue-and-yellow finished third in their group and did not qualify for the final stage of the championship.

"Oleh Vodolymirovych, in our decisive match, the Italians turned out to be stronger…"

"In the first half, I think it was an even game, but the opponent managed to score. The start of the second half was ours, we created several opportunities, but a regrettable sending-off played its part. Our team was generally pursued by bad luck throughout this tournament. Moreover, the Italian squad utilized everything they had created. There were also many objective reasons why our performance was as it was."

"Was the episode with the red card the key moment in the match?"

"Of course. I would name several minutes, since the hosts scored immediately and we even missed a penalty kick. It's difficult to turn around a game against such a strong opponent when you're losing by two goals and playing with fewer players. However, I have no complaints about my players. The boys showed everything they could today."

Photo courtesy of the UAF press service

"You know this team well. There was almost no preparation for the tournament. How much did the boys play to their potential?"

"I think around 50-60 percent, not more. What they showed earlier, especially in the qualifying tournament, and now — it's like heaven and earth. Now I hardly recognize many of them, but again — there were objective reasons for this. The players lacked game practice, many of them trained only on artificial fields… When your legs don't run, your head stops working too. There were a lot of unjustified losses, players sometimes made illogical decisions, all because of the lack of full preparation. For example, those same Italians played around 10 matches this year if I'm not mistaken, something similar is in the Polish team's record as well. So you can't escape reality."

"The players themselves were very disappointed that they didn't make it to Euro?"

"Not without reason, but still they are young professionals who understand life doesn't end here. It was pleasant for them just to meet each other. You should have seen how they said goodbye. There's a lot of work ahead, and the players understand this."

"Despite the ongoing war, do you even have preliminary plans for further work?"

"Our next official matches are scheduled for autumn 2023 when the qualifying tournament for Euro-2024 (U-19) will take place. Until then there should be training camps, but whether they will happen is hard to say now. The war is ongoing in our country, and it's impossible to predict anything at this moment. We hope that the war will end soon with our victory, and everything will return to normal."

Photo courtesy of the UAF press service

Elite Round Qualifier for Euro-2022 (U-17)

Group 6

April 20, 2022

Kosovo — Ukraine — 0:2 

Italy — Poland — 1:0 

April 23, 2022

Ukraine — Poland — 2:3 

Italy — Kosovo — 1:0

April 26, 2022

Ukraine — Italy — 1:3 

Poland — Kosovo — 2:1

Final Standings