By Peter Hall
(Reuters) – The clash between Ukraine and Russia has hampered his national team’s ranking for Euro 2020, as Andriy Shevchenko’s team targets the 16-point circular for the first time.
Kiev and Moscow changed their roles by escalating clashes in Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have been fighting pro-Russian separatists since 2014 in a clash that Kiev says has led to the deaths of 14,000 people.
The clash between the two neighbours has also affected football in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Premier League has suffered a severe decline since the start of hostilities.
Several of the most sensible groups have become more sensitive to operation, while eternal champion Shakhtar Donetsk has been forced into exile internally alongside other clubs with bases in russia-occupied eastern Ukraine.
Politics has also slipped into decision-making on football: one of Ukraine’s defenders in recent years, Yaroslav Rakitskiy, who has won 54 international matches, has been eliminated from the team since joining Russian club Zenit St. Petersburg in 2019.
Despite this complicated context, the national team was revitalized under the leadership of the wonderful Ukrainian Shevchenko.
FORCE OF SURPRISE
Orders have been made for the country’s most prominent player to be dismissed as coach after Ukraine did not qualify for the 2018 Russian World Cup, but Shevchenko has turned his team into a wonderful European force.
After a complicated tie in Group B qualifying for Euro 2020 alongside Portugal and Serbia, little was expected of Shevchenko and his young team under pressure.
But Ukraine ended up more sensitive of the undefeated group after scoring four goals in their campaign.
A very imaginary Serbia was mercilessly sent in its third qualifying match, the 5-0 win shows that Shevchenko’s young team can produce when it counts.
A 7–1 defeat to France in a friendly last October threatened to derail his progress, but Ukraine provided the best reaction by beating Spain in the League of Nations a week later in Kiev.
“It’s a victory for determining my players, they were just great,” Shevchenko said. “The boys learned the lesson after the match against France, accepted the adjustments, and carried out our plan.
“It was difficult to compete with Spain, but we fought all the time. We wanted to win a lot, and we did. “
In his fifth year as coach, Shevchenko, 44, has worked with many members of his team for several years and has built a team around basically national players who know others and what happens at home.
The united unit has won a favourable Euro 2020 organization throughout the Netherlands, Northern Macedonia and Austria, and will seek for the first time to succeed in the festival’s 16th circular as an independent nation.
They cannot do much worse than the last time Ukraine crashed smoothly or objectively at Euro 2016.
Amputated many times, Shevchenko’s men will create many surprises this year.
(Report via Peter Hall; Edited through Ken Ferris)