Head coach of the Ukrainian beach soccer team, Mykola Kostenko, spoke about the tasks facing the team at the III European Games.

At the European Games in Poland, Ukraine's beach soccer national team will compete in Group B alongside Switzerland, Italy, and Moldova. Coach of the blue-and-yellow team Mykola Kostenko shared his expectations for the tournament and details about preparations.

"Today we held our last training session in Kyiv. We worked on interaction in threes. After that, we addressed several organizational issues and will depart by bus to Poland on June 23."

Regarding the direct preparation, it mainly took place at the players' clubs. For instance, our boys from 'VIT' secured fifth place at the Euro Winners Cup in Portugal. This was a very successful performance for the Ukrainian team, which even managed to beat 'Braga'—the base club of the Portuguese national team.

However, they returned to Ukraine only two days ago. The journey was tough, so we decided to give them rest and recover psychologically. On today's training session, the players were in a better mood, the boys are looking forward to leaving for the European Games.

We will arrive in Poland on June 24. We'll take it easy that day, train on June 25 and 26 as planned, and start our games with Italy on June 27. Then we play against Switzerland and Moldova.

As for the opponents, both Switzerland and Italy don't need much advertising. But neither should Moldova be underestimated. While this team may not have many stars of European level, they are very serious about their preparation and will be ready to give us a fight.

The players from Switzerland and Italy were also involved in the Euro Winners Cup; we had the chance to see them in action and assess their condition. We prepared for the European Games very seriously. So, weexpect an interesting ranking tournament and set ourselves, as always, the highest goals», — said the head coach of Ukraine.

For participation in the III European Games, our team coaches Mykola Kostenko and Oleksandr Koronychuk called up 12 players.

Ukraine's Beach Soccer Team Roster for the III European Games

Goalkeepers: Andriy Nerus, Oleksandr Poslavsky (both from 'VIT').

Field Players: Ivan Gluts'kyi, Dmytro Medvid', Maksym Voytok, Yuri Shcheritsia, Oleksandr Koronychuk (all from 'VIT'), Andriy Pashko ('Altyn Altas'), Oleg Zborovskyy, Andriy Borsuk (both from 'Artyom Music'), Yaroslav Zavorotnyi, Dmytro Voytenko ('Griffin').

Men's Tournament

Group A: Poland, Portugal, Spain, Azerbaijan.

Group B: Switzerland, Italy, Ukraine, Moldova. 

Schedule of Ukraine's National Team Matches at the Group Stage

27.06. Italy — Ukraine (14.00)

28.06. Switzerland — Ukraine (18.30)

29.06. Ukraine — Moldova (14.00)

Time — Kyiv time.

Recall that both the men's and women's tournaments of beach soccer at the 2023 European Games will take place from June 27 to July 1 in Tarnów, Poland.

According to the tournament rules, men's national teams at the group stage will play a round-robin tournament. The top two teams from each group advance to the semifinals. The losers compete for 5th-8th places.