On Monday, the women's national beach soccer team of Ukraine will depart for the Spanish town of El Puerto de Santa Maria, where from May 22 to 25, the first stage of Euroleague-2025 will take place.

The head coach of the blue and yellow team, Yuriy Klimenko, has announced the squad and tasks for this prestigious tournament.

"Unfortunately, we are going to Spain with an unoptimal lineup since Snezhana Volovenko, one of our leaders, could not join us due to work circumstances and hasn't had enough time to recover from a serious injury. Alona Kyrilchuk also has yet to regain her playing condition after a severe injury. Additionally, Anastasiya Teresh and Irina Dubitska are currently in Portugal with their clubs, where they have matches in the first division. However, I hope that they will join the team in Spain.

Most of these girls played for the national team last season, while newcomers include Hanna Prokopenko, whom we invited to the autumn training camp before Neom Cup. She performed very well and joined our squad as a result. Also new are Olga Kvach and Nataliya Chenkay. Olga is a goalkeeper who impressed us with her performance at the recent Ukrainian student championship. We have been watching her closely, and Olga's work showed that she meets the national team level. The same applies to Nataliya Chenkay, who also performed well in the student games.

A problem for us is holding the first qualifying stage of Euroleague in May. The second one will be in July, but BSWW leadership informed us that we must play in May. Unfortunately, all girls are playing matches in regular football and futsal both in Ukraine and Portugal at this time. Therefore, we couldn't conduct a full training camp. We wanted to gather the players for three weeks, but it turned out to be only one and a half weeks. However, it's good that we managed something.

In the last week, we worked in a five-day regime. On Thursday, we played a friendly match against U-19 boys. It was a decent game that allowed the girls to get their fitness up slightly, feel the sand and recall some tactical combinations. The coaching staff is generally satisfied with the last microcycle of preparation. In it, 13–14 girls participated regularly, considering that we also watched several candidates for the national team.

According to BSWW regulations this year, group winners advance directly to Euroleague's Super Final, while second-placed teams will play another playoff match in the bronze final.

Given the situation, our goal is clearly to secure first place in our group and qualify for the Super Final. However, we didn't draw a favorable lot. Our opponents are very tough: Spain, which holds the top spot in the BSWW world ranking, and England, currently on the fourth step. The minimum goal is to take second place. Then we will still have an opportunity to compete for a ticket to the Super Final against another team that finishes second in another group where Poland, Czech Republic, and Belgium are playing,"— said Yuriy Klimenko.

Squad of Ukraine's women's national beach soccer team for Euroleague-2025

Goalkeepers: Anastasiya Teresh, Oleksandra Kulyk. 

Field players: Yuliia Kostyuk, Anastasiya Klipachenko, Irina Dubitska, Irina Bavzhenyu, Oleksandra Skibyna, Margarita Yurasova, Ruslana Dyachuk, Hanna Prokopenko, Oleksandra Kulyk, Olga Kvach, Nataliya Chenkay.

Groups of the women's Euroleague-2025 beach soccer

Group 1: Spain, Ukraine, England.

Group 2: Poland, Czech Republic, Belgium.

Schedule of matches for Ukraine's women's national team

May 22. Spain — Ukraine (19:45)

May 23. Ukraine — England (17:15)

Match times are in Kyiv time.

The second stage of the women's Euroleague-2025 will take place from July 18 to 20 in Batumi, Georgia. The Super Final is scheduled for September 9–14 in Viareggio, Italy.