The head coach of Ukraine's U-21 national team, Ruslan Rotan, commented on the loss (2:3) to Slovakia in the first round-of-16 match for Euro 2023 qualification (U-21).

"The impression is probably not one of the best because the defeat seems a bit illogical, but the main thing is that there's another game. We lost today's match, but we didn't lose the battle. On September 27th, we have our next match which we need to prepare for better psychologically. I understand our young players who are full of enthusiasm, but their nerves led to mistakes that I haven't seen them make throughout this qualification tournament. We made quite a few errors today. We have time to get ready, recover, and definitely analyze the game so that on the 27th we can show better results and qualify for Euro.

Psychologically, it's tough to concede goals early in both halves. If you look at the first goal, perhaps this is a logical mistake that they wouldn't make ten times out of ten, but such mistakes shouldn't happen. As for the second goal, I think the referee should have treated us with respect. It was a clear foul and he was right there near the ball... But I don't want to justify ourselves now because we've made enough mistakes already, but it's important that we take a different approach towards ourselves. We endure so much as a country, so it's hard to react to referee errors on top of everything else.

But there's nothing we can do about it now. The next match will be different; the team will be different and stronger. The only thing Slovakia could take advantage of today was their character. That's exactly what happened. They really wanted this victory.

If you recall last year's friendly game against Slovakia, today's match was very different because there was a lot more psychological pressure. Last year it was just training camps and results didn't matter for either team. Today the result was of primary importance.

Artificial turf in Jilina? This is a trick by Slovakia that they played on us. They knew no one plays on such fields in our league. It's like a trap we fell into today. It really affects players, injuries... Perhaps this needs to be approached differently, especially since it's only September. I believe there are two or three fields in Slovakia where the match could have been held.

Now we need to recover our players both physically and psychologically, calmly analyze the game. On September 27th, we must come out as a different team, confident that the result will allow us to progress further, which means only victory.

We have to definitely review the mistakes, talk with the players. Today we were a bit nervous, which was noticeable. For September 27th, we need to get rid of those nerves. The match is coming up and we will rely on the best performers available. Let's hope there are no serious injuries; so far nobody has complained. Whoever is in better shape will play.

Regarding the behavior of Slovakia players, there was a referee on the field who should deal with provocations. I don't want to justify Vycharenko, who received his third yellow card. It's emotions and we'll have a serious talk with him. But there were provocations from a Slovak player today. The referee, honestly speaking, didn't like us much today. But this is football; hopefully things will be better in the next match.

Why didn't Yarmoluk play? He hasn't been with us for a while and has been training separately. We'll see before the response match, anything can happen.

We are now heading to the hotel for dinner, then we will set off on our journey back. It's good that Bielsko-Biała is nearby, just 100 km away. We're returning home, resting, recovering, and starting preparations for the second match tomorrow evening," said Ruslan Rotan after the game.