“The fear of making a mistake hinders the actions of the players of the Ukrainian national team” (June 25, 2024) — dynamo.kiev.ua

Former Ukrainian midfielder Yevhen Levchenko shared his prediction for the blue and white match against Belgium at Euro 2024.

Yevhen Levchenko (photo: instagram.com)

– “With all due respect to Romania and Slovakia, but with our selection of players, the blue and yellow should defeat these rivals. Only in the second half of the match against the Slovaks did we see the Ukrainian team we want to see. Serhii’s men Rebrov surpassed their rival not only in desire and speed, but also, and very importantly, in fighting.

The match against Romania? It was a complete failure. I was unpleasantly surprised not even by the performance of our team, but by the fact that the team did not react to the successful actions of the rival. Although, of course, the personal mistakes and the quality of the game itself seemed pathetic.

I want to pay tribute to the coaching staff of the Ukrainian national team. The coaches made qualitative changes both in the starting eleven and during the match against Slovakia, which gave us the opportunity to stay in the game. Although the first half hour was alarming: our team seemed to be watching the opponent closely, practically without threatening their goal.

It seems to me that many players of the Ukrainian national team are repressed, the fear of making a mistake limits their actions. Once again, we must try to abstract ourselves from everything and play our best football.

What do you expect from the game against Belgium? I really hope that we don’t put too much pressure on our goal, because the Belgians have players who can score a goal out of nothing. If we manage to block important opposition players like De Bruyne, Tielemans, Lukaku and others, everything can turn out well.

I think the Ukrainian team has not yet shown its full potential. I want the match against Belgium to be the best for the blue and white in the group stage of the Euro Cup. We can get at least a minimal victory. The result 1-0 or 2-1 in our favor is not important,” Levchenko said.

Current Ukraine vs Belgium quotes >>>