The blue-and-yellow team started the European Championship with a loss to Italy (1:2), but in the next match, they confidently defeated Slovenia (4:2). Today's victory over Finland (7:4) has advanced our team to the semifinals. The comments from head coach of Ukraine's young players Igor Moskovich after the match with Finland are provided by the press service of the Ukrainian Handball Federation.

— Igor Evgenyevich, congratulations on your victory and advancement to the semifinals. What can you say about the game?

— Thank you for the greeting. Regarding the game — from the first seconds we dominated our opponent, created countless opportunities, delivered many shots at goal. Therefore, I believe that we deserved to win today. The only difficulties in the first half were during the "5x4" play. We analyzed this situation during practice with the Finnish team. Unfortunately, we conceded a third goal just before halftime, which was unnecessary. In the second half, we regrouped and did not have such problems against Finland's five-man field, although they played in five from the fifth minute of the second half onwards.

I am very pleased with our team's performance in the group stage. We played well in all three matches, approached this tournament in good physical, psychological, and tactical shape. We will review the moments where we conceded goals because they were identical. The success of Finland's national team came only from our set pieces. Therefore, we will analyze this situation and figure out why we conceded three goals from penalty kicks. We did not clear the ball and effectively gave them to the opposition. Consequently, we gifted those goals.

— It seemed that a quick goal in the second half greatly influenced the course of events…

— Our tactics were aimed at this from the start, to put pressure on our opponent's goal right from the beginning. So the goal was expected, and we did everything as planned.

UEFA-2023 (U-19) Handball Championship

Group A: Croatia, Portugal, Spain, France.

Group B: Ukraine, Finland, Slovenia, Italy.

Round 1

03.09.2023

Ukraine — Italy — 1:2

Finland — Slovenia — 2:4

Portugal — Spain — 5:3

Croatia — France — 6:6

Round 2

04.09.2023

Slovenia — Ukraine — 2:4

Italy — Finland — 5:0

France — Portugal — 1:5

Spain — Croatia — 3:3

Round 3

06.09.2023

Ukraine — Finland — 7:4

Slovenia — Italy — 4:2

Group B. Final Standings

Spain — France — 5:2

Croatia — Portugal — 3:4

08.09.2023

Semifinals

Portugal — Slovenia (18.30)

Ukraine — Spain (21.30)

10.09.2023

Final (21.30)

Match times are in Kyiv time.