Recently, the blue-and-yellow team arrived in Spain for a training camp before the start of the final stage of the European Championship, which begins on September 3rd in Poreč, Croatia. During the camp, two friendly matches against the current continental champion, the Spanish youth national team, are scheduled to take place on August 23rd (kick-off at 9:00 PM Kyiv time) and August 25th (12:30 PM).

Ahead of these sparring matches, head coach Igor Moskovichov gave a comment to the press service of the Ukrainian Futsal Association.

— Igor Evgenyevich, two upcoming matches are against Spain's youth national team, which is currently the European champion among 19-year-old players. Have you already looked at this team?

— Yes, over the past two days we have analyzed how the Spanish play both defensively and offensively. I noticed that Spain plays in a '3-1' formation, similar to Portugal's. However, while Portugal has direct ball delivery to their pivot player, Spain offers many options for ball movement before reaching the pivot, followed by numerous attacking possibilities from there on out. Therefore, it will be very difficult. We have our own ideas about how to play against this Spanish tactic, and we'll see if they work in practice.

— In this Spanish team are players who became European champions last fall, playing for a squad made up of 2002-born futsalists and younger. Now they play among their peers. These include Juan Moreno and Tapías, leaders of the current 2004-born national team. Particularly noteworthy is Juan Moreno, who already plays in the 'main' El Poso team. Did you pay attention to these individuals, and how do you plan to play against them?

— No, we did not analyze individual player qualities. We focused on their team interaction both defensively and offensively. In fact, in this Spanish squad, it's not just these two players who are leaders. Any player can take the initiative at a crucial moment. We look at the entire team.

— Has anything changed in our team's morale compared to the tournament in Poreč that took place last June?

— We talked with all players. Everyone believes in themselves. Of course, it’s important to learn from past mistakes. We still have ten days until the European Championship and we work every day on our errors, trying to eliminate them. Morally, everyone is ready to play.

— It's impossible not to ask about our team's group opponents. Italy and Slovenia have already started their preparation for the tournament. The latter will also play a friendly match against Croatia on August 30th. Are you following your group rivals now?

— Of course. We gradually analyze them, we have video material about our opponents and study all their strengths and weaknesses. We'll be ready for this.

Composition of the Ukrainian Youth National Futsal Team

Goalkeepers: Dmytro Dyachenko, Konstantin Rafałski (both — 'Cardinal-Rivne'), Ivan Belimov ('Black Sea'); field players — Vadym Tyutyuray, Maxim Malynovskyi, Dmytro Skychyk (all — 'Cardinal-Rivne'), Illia Prykhodko, Ivan Drzhdov, Dmytro Fedik (all — 'Hurricane'), Denis Snitarenko (SkyUp Futsal), Dmytro Rybicki ('Futsal Szczecin', Poland), Andriy Yelishev, Vladyslav Tkachenko (both — 'Red Devils', Poland), Igor Pelецкий ('Vikingay', Lithuania), Roman Tatumiak ('United Pomieścia', Italy).

The blue-and-yellow team is preparing for the Euro-2023 (U-19) tournament, which will take place from September 3rd to 10th in Poreč. The Croatian national team, who are hosting the event, have been joined by seven winners of the main round. Eight participants of the final tournament were divided into two groups of four teams each, with the top two from each group advancing to the semi-finals. According to the draw results, the Ukrainian youth national team was placed in Group B, where they will play against Finland, Slovenia and Italy.

Euro-2023 (U-19) Futsal Tournament Final Stage

Group A: Croatia, Portugal, Spain, France.

Group B: Ukraine, Finland, Slovenia, Italy.

Schedule

03.09.2023

Finland — Slovenia (14:00)

Ukraine — Italy (16:30)

Portugal — Spain (19:00)

Croatia — France (21:30)

04.09.2023

Slovenia — Ukraine (14:00)

Italy — Finland (16:30)

France — Portugal (19:00)

Spain — Croatia (21:30)

06.09.2023

Ukraine — Finland (14:00)

Slovenia — Italy (16:30)

Spain — France (19:00)

Croatia — Portugal (21:30)

08.09.2023

Semi-final 1 (18:30 or 21:30)

Semi-final 2 (18:30 or 21:30)

10.09.2023

Final (21:30)

Match times — Kyiv time.

As a reminder, in March the Ukrainian youth national futsal team qualified for the final tournament of the continental championship for the third consecutive year. In Group 2 of the main round of qualification for Euro-2023 (U-19), which was held in Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia, Igor Moskovichov's wards convincingly defeated Montenegro (12:1) and Romania (7:3), lost to Serbia in the decisive match (4:2), thus securing first place in their group.

Euro-2023 (U-19) Futsal Tournament. Main Round Qualification. Group 2

22.03.2023

Ukraine — Montenegro — 12:1

Romania — Serbia — 1:6

23.03.2023

Romania — Ukraine — 3:7

Serbia — Montenegro — 3:1

25.03.2023

Serbia — Ukraine — 2:4

Montenegro — Romania — 2:7

Final Standings

The inaugural European Championship for youth futsal teams was held in Rijeka in 2019, and the second edition took place last year in Huelva — both times (2019, 2022) Spain's team emerged as champions. The second championship was initially scheduled for 2021 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ukrainian national team participated in both final tournaments. In 2019, Vitaliy Odegov's wards secured third place in their group, and in 2022 they reached the semi-finals.