Before the start of European Championship, no one believed in success of Ukrainian national team in Ukraine. People who I talked to about chances of the host team mentioned that they supported Ukraine but did not want to make prognosis how many rounds their team would make through.

As it is said “appetite comes with eating” and in the first round, thanks to double of Andriy Shevchenko Ukrainians hope to go through the next round. The team of Blokhin will hold the next match on “Donbass Arena” instead of “Olympic”. Besides the opinion of local fans, I read about details of Oleg Blokhin’s press conference in Ukrainian media.

Blokhin complained about heat. According to him, it is difficult to play pressing in such weather. Head coach of the Ukrainian team stated that some players have micro traumas but nothing is serious. After the match against Sweden, Blokhin mentioned that the team has some problems with team play. Fans also mentioned this fact. According to the head coach, two weeks were not enough for preparation. Blokhin also mentioned that his team did not make such mistakes as Dutch players did against Germany. Blokhin did not agree with Laurent Blanc, head coach of the French national team, that France is outsider of the group. He thinks that France has a good team and Blanc is a modest.

The head coach of the Ukrainian team knows that one victory is not a guarantee of the next round. His goal is that the players must not be afraid of any opponent and he has been working on it for last 3 days.

At the press conference, Blokhin stated that he has a perfect relationship with Andriy Shevchenko. The head coach highlighted that Shevchenko is a professional on the field and also outside of it.

By the way, Blokhin was mentioned that because of situation of Yulia Tymoshenko, president of France will not attend the match. The head coach asked not to put him political questions because he is not at demonstration. Tymoshenko is treated at one of the Kharkiv hospitals.

As for prognosis, experts predicted that the match would end up draw. They were invited to “Perviy Kanal” (First Channel). Let us see. Kharkiv, Kiev and Donetsk fan-zones are looking forward to the upcoming match.
 

Lasha Tabagari, special correspondent of worldsport.ge from Kharkiv

Photos by the author