Youth team assistant coach of Slovakia Tibor Golyan commented on the choice of venue for the home match in the Euro-2023 (U-21) playoff against Ukraine.

According to the results of the Euro-2023 (U-21) playoff draw, Rostyslav Rotan's wards will face Slovakia. The matches will take place on September 23 and 27 this year. Our team will play the first match away in Žilina at the "Pod Dubňom" stadium.

Assistant coach of the Slovak U-21 national team Tibor Golyan explained the choice of home venue in an interview on the official website of the national football association: "Considering that we play a return match against Ukraine in the city of Bielsko-Biała, we decided to stay in Žilina from a logistical, organizational, transportation, and distance perspective. In March, we held qualifying matches on this stadium against Northern Ireland and Spain. Everything was organized without problems, and many people came to support us. For example, during the match with Spain, there were over 3,000 fans in the stands. We believe that they will be at the stadium in September as well and help us secure a comfortable advantage before the away game."

It should be noted that Slovakia's youth team won Northern Ireland (2-1) and lost to Spain (2-3) in March this year within the Euro-2023 (U-21) group stage.

We remind you that Ukraine will play their nominal home match in the Polish city of Bielsko-Biała at the Municipal Stadium. The start time of the matches will be announced later.

In the final tournament, 16 teams will participate — Romania and Georgia as hosts, plus 14 additional teams that qualify through the playoffs (nine group winners, the best team among second-placed teams, and four playoff winners).

Participants of the final tournament: Romania, Georgia, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Italy, Switzerland.

Euro-2023 (U-21). Qualification. Playoffs

Croatia — Denmark

Slovakia — Ukraine

Ireland — Israel

Iceland — Czech Republic

Qualification. Group H

Final standings

Final standings of second-placed teams

Points earned against teams that finished in sixth place in their groups are not counted.

Playoffs: September 19-27, 2022.

Final tournament: June/July 2023.

The matches of the tournament involving sixteen teams will be held at four stadiums in Romania (two — in Cluj-Napoca and two — in Bucharest) and four in Georgia (in Batumi, Poti and two — in Tbilisi). The opening match will take place in Romania, while the final will be held in Georgia.