Today, on March 22, the Ukrainian U-19 national team (players born in 2004 or later) started their participation in the elite round of the Euro 2023 qualification with a match against Luxembourg.

The players under Sergei Nagornyak gathered on March 19, flew to Spain from Budapest early on the 20th, and held a pre-match training session on the 21st. In the Pyrenees, our footballers will face the tournament hosts as well as teams from Luxembourg and Denmark.

The blue-and-yellow team began their elite round campaign with a match against Luxembourg's peers in Badajoz city. The Ukrainians managed to open the scoring on the 12th minute — Buliza assisted Gorbach's goal. However, shortly after, the opponents equalized through Elchan's accurate shot. Both teams created chances but failed to change the score before halftime.

At the 59th minute, Ukraine found themselves in a difficult situation when Elchan scored his second goal. Sergei Nagornyak immediately made four substitutions as a response, yet our boys could not alter the course of the game. In stoppage time, both teams remained scoreless.

In summary, the Ukrainian U-19 team started their elite round campaign with a loss — 1:2. Their next match will be on March 25 against Denmark.

Euro 2023 (U-19). Elite Round Qualification. Group 3

March 22, 2023

Ukraine (U-19) — Luxembourg (U-19) — 1:2 (1:1)

Goals: Gorbach (12) — Elchan (17, 59).

Ukraine (U-19): Gereta, Buliza (c), Udod, Slubik, Kitele, Sigeiev (Chernysh, 59), Varfolomeev (Alexandrov, 87), Tsarenko (Rosputyuko, 59), Glushenko (Yushchenko, 59), Gorbach, Pushkarov (Harabara, 59).

Luxembourg (U-19): Margatu, Torresh (c), Goncalves, Ikene, Loheye, De Oliveira, Berberi (Kliserica, 69), Dardari, Elchan (Turpin, 74), Rodrigues (Suchar, 87), Veidira.

Yellow cards: Buliza (34), Kitele (73), Udod (82) — Dardari (26), Torresh (64).

Red cards: Udod (90+2) — Dardari (90+4).

Denmark — Spain — 0:0

Standings

March 25, 2023

Ukraine — Denmark (17.00)

Spain — Luxembourg (19.00)

March 28, 2023

Spain — Ukraine (19.00)

Luxembourg — Denmark (19.00)

Match times are in Kyiv time.

In the elite round, 28 participants compete for spots at the final stage, which will take place from July 3 to 16 of this year on Malta. Seven group winners qualify.

At this qualification stage in March, 27 teams that advanced from the first stage and Portugal, who received a direct entry into the elite round as the top-ranked team for their age category, will compete.

Euro 2023 (U-19). Elite Round Qualification

Group 1: France, Romania, Norway, Northern Ireland.

Group 2: Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, Italy.

Group 3: Ukraine, Spain, Denmark, Luxembourg.

Group 4: Portugal, Croatia, Czech Republic, Sweden.

Group 5: Ireland, Greece, Estonia, Slovakia.

Group 6: Serbia, Poland, Israel, Latvia.

Group 7: England, Turkey, Iceland, Hungary.

As a reminder, in the qualification round of Euro 2023 (U-19), the Ukrainian U-19 national team under Sergei Nagornyak's leadership finished their campaign with the top spot in their group.