Euro: Ukraine join England in the quarter-finals

Ukraine qualified for the quarter-finals of the European Championship, Tuesday, where it will face England on Saturday in Rome, after its victory over Sweden (2-1), after a closed match, which turned into the elimination of the Swedish Marcus Danielson.

The Ukrainian rescue came in the 120th minute, the last, when everyone was ready for the penalty shootout. But Sweden then played 10-11 from the 99th minute and defender Danielson got the red card for a terrible lone on Artem Besden.

In the last position from the left fell Oleksandr Zinchenko, entered Artem Dovbek a quarter of an hour ago, and hit a header that gave Ukraine its best result in the Euros.

The Ukrainians have already played the quarter-finals, but it was at the World Cup, in 2006, when Andrei Shevchenko was at the peak and was not in uniform on the bench. This qualification is therefore an achievement, and the victory over England on Saturday in Rome would be another, even greater.

The Ukrainian coach responded after the match, “With this performance and this commitment, our team deserved the love of the whole country.”

In the meantime, the latest knockout stages of the Euro were not the most exciting, and far from it, after the intensity and frequency of the two lengthy matches on Monday, between Spain and Croatia (5-3 after) and then between Switzerland. and France (3-3, 5-4 tab), the 120th minute for Glasgow sometimes seemed too long.

It has to be said that Ukraine went through the very small door to reach the knockout stages, finishing third in their group with just one win and two defeats. So she also attacked this meeting in Glasgow on tiptoe, after Shevchenko had made careful choices of tactics and composition.

function and bar

But up front, Sweden were for their part at the top of their group, having willingly left the ball to their various rivals, and at first seemed to want to proceed in the same way on Tuesday. During the first 25 minutes, we’ll politely say that the two teams measured each other and that the pace wasn’t completely stifling.

But everything accelerated in a very nice Ukrainian move, with first play by Taras Stepanenko mirroring the talented Andrei Yarmolenko, who found Zinchenko with a beautiful exterior from the left. The Manchester City player resumed a powerful shot from the left and Ukraine advanced (1-0, 27).

But Shevchenko’s men did not maintain this advantage for a long time. Shortly before the end of the first half, Emil Forsberg scored his fourth goal in the tournament with a skewed kick, and Ukraine goalkeeper Georgy Buchan (1-1, 43).

Before plunging back into a state of hibernation as both teams began to fear giving up, the match saw a frantic rise of nearly 15 minutes into the second half.

In the 55th minute, Serhiy Sidorchuk hit Robin Olsen’s post first, and he imitated it the next minute and crossed the field by Forsberg. The confident Leipzig attacking midfielder then hit the Ukrainian crossbar (69), as Sweden looked at their best to enter the quarter-finals.

But ambitions were then replaced by mistrust and nothing happened until the end of regulation time and even then, even Danielson’s red card. It was a turning point, and Ukraine negotiated it well.

“I felt like we were going to finish scoring but unfortunately we didn’t. A red card decided the score,” said Swedish coach Jan Andersson.