The head coach of Ukraine's U-16 national team (players born in 2010 or later), Volodymyr Samborskyi, shared his plans for the Italian training camp.

On November 1, Ukraine's youngest national team, U-16, departed for Italy for a short-term training camp and began work on the 2nd. They will play two friendly matches against Italian counterparts on the 4th and 6th.

The official website of the Ukrainian Football Association was informed about the team's plans by its head coach, Volodymyr Samborskyi.

— Mr. Volodymyr, is the goal of this training camp still unchanged? Selection?

— That's right. Compared to the September camp, we have nine new players in our squad. The selection process continues. We closely monitor those players who are performing well at their clubs. Now, some of them from abroad have joined us, although not all, as three or four players suffered injuries.

We have a group of players who, if they do not lower the bar for themselves, will form the backbone of this team in the future, so we could not miss the opportunity to observe them against strong opposition.  

— Were there any restrictions on the number of players for this training camp?

— Yes. The Italian side requested that the squad consist of 20 players (18 outfield and two goalkeepers). However, nothing terrible, we will work with what we have.

— Did you manage to study Italy's team a bit?

— We watched several of their matches. Italian youth teams play in one system, an aggressive and vertical football style. However, we do not intend to adjust our tactics to the opponent. We have our own plans. We need to work on defense, tactics, positional attacks. Given that there are new players, a lot of time needs to be spent on individual talks with the boys.

Composition of Ukraine's U-16 national team

Goalkeepers: Igor Galdin ("Levante", Spain), Danylo Sychov ("Kryvyi Rih" Kryvyi Rih).

Defenders: Maxim Misyura, Yegor Falkovskyi (both — "Shakhtar" Donetsk), Artem Mazur ("Dynamo" Kyiv), Kostiantyn Kislyanka ("Rukh" Lviv), Timofei Reznik (Cherkasy LNZ), Bogdan Begmetiuk ("Milan", Italy), Mykhailo Abramovich ("Gorica", Croatia).

Midfielders: Ilya Ostrovsky, Denys Gordiyev (both — "Rukh" Lviv), Ilya Birladyanu ("Shakhtar" Donetsk), Myroslav Donik (Cherkasy LNZ), Artem Rybak ("Barcelona", Spain), Zahar Osykhin ("Getafe", Spain).

Forwards: Artur Martyniuk ("Dynamo" Kyiv), Artem Fedushko, Oleksii Dziurenets, Ilya Bodak (all — "Rukh" Lviv), Sviatoslav Serdyukovskiy ("Uzhgorod").