Volodymyr Yezersky: "We had very beneficial sparrings at the Kyiv training camp"

The Ukraine U-17 national team (born in 2007) completed a training camp in the capital, during which they played four friendly matches.

Volodymyr Yezersky: "We had very beneficial sparrings at the Kyiv training camp"

Photo by the press service of the UAF

The Ukrainian U-17 national team (born in 2007) has completed a training camp in the capital, during which they played four friendly matches.

At the V. Bannikov Training Center, the blue-and-yellow team lost to Kolos U-19 — 1:3 and Shakhtar U-19 — 1:2, but also defeated Dnipro-1 U-17 — 4:0 and Metalist 1925 U-19 — 1:0. The official website of the Ukrainian Football Association reported on the outcomes of the camp by head coach Volodymyr Yezersky.

“First and foremost, I am grateful to the UFA for making this training camp possible at such a time,” said Yezersky. “We had good conditions for full work.”

Our team is preparing for the qualification round of the European Championship, and we need to understand the current realities regarding players of our age group and younger ones. It's difficult to select players, assess their readiness and level, as matches in the Youth League are just beginning and mostly take place at a regional level. Therefore, I am glad that during the training process we managed to conduct four friendlies, which were very beneficial because many candidates for our team also played in the opposing teams' lineups.

It's reassuring that these matches allowed us to involve not only players from Dynamo and Shakhtar but also representatives of other clubs from different regions. And I can say that at least five or six players from this squad could help the national team in the qualification round for Euro.

Of course, we lack such encounters with these boys. For example, Germany's team of this age has already played nearly 40 matches, while Finland's team has played slightly fewer games. At the same time, we understand reality and try to cope with the situation. Based on the results of these training camps that have taken place, we need to properly determine our lineup for official matches that await us in October.

We remind you that this Ukrainian team is preparing for the qualification round of Euro-2024 (U-17). From October 15th to 21st, blue-and-yellow will face teams from Germany, Finland and Liechtenstein (the host).

Qualification Group Composition for Euro-2024 (U-17)

Group 1: Denmark, Austria, Georgia, Lithuania.

Group 2: Sweden, Poland, Latvia, Moldova.

Group 3: Germany, Ukraine, Finland, Liechtenstein.

Group 4: Serbia, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan.

Group 5: Portugal, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Albania.

Group 6: France, Norway, Romania, Estonia.

Group 7: Turkey, Scotland, Belarus, Kazakhstan.

Group 8: Spain, Slovakia, North Macedonia, Malta.

Group 9: England, Croatia, Kosovo, Faroe Islands.

Group 10: Ireland, Switzerland, Iceland, Armenia.

Group 11: Italy, Greece, Northern Ireland, San Marino.

Group 12: Belgium, Israel, Wales, Gibraltar.

Group 13: Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Andorra.

The winners of the first two places in each qualifying group and five best third-place finishers based on results against the top two teams will advance to the elite round of qualification.

We remind you that Cyprus received a direct entry into the final stage as the host, while the Netherlands team will start from the elite round of qualification.