The Ukraine national football team represents Ukraine in men’s international football competitions and it is governed by the Ukrainian Association of Football, the governing body for football in Ukraine. Ukraine’s home ground is the Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv. The team has been a full member of UEFA and FIFA since 1992.
After Ukrainian Independence and the country’s breakaway from the Soviet Union, they played their first match against Hungary on 29 April 1992. The team’s biggest success on the world stage was reaching the quarter-finals in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which also marked the team’s debut in the finals of a major championship.
Ukraine qualified for Euro 2020 as group winners ahead of Portugal for the first time in their history. It will be their third appearance at Euro’s having qualified for the European Championship in 2012 as co-hosts and in 2016 via the play-off. Ukraine’s former star striker turned head coach Andriy Shevchenko will be hoping to lead his team to the knock-out stage of the competition for the first time. They are placed in Group C alongside Netherlands, Austria and North Macedonia. During the qualifying campaign, they went unbeaten in 2019 and defeated defending champion Portugal 2-1 and thrashed Serbia 5-0.
But, in 2020 the team was badly hit by COVID-19 outbreak in the team and had to suffer a humiliating 7-1 loss against France. Since then, Ukraine has come a long way and head into the rescheduled Euro 2020 undefeated in 2021 and achieved victories over Ireland and Cyprus in the warm-up games. Ukraine has a poor record in European Championship. They won just one match when they made their debut in the competition in 2012 and lost all their matches at Euro 2016.
Key players
Ukraine mostly play with a 4-3-3 formation with Oleksander Zinchenko and Ruslan Malinoviskiy as their key players. Zinchenko, who plays as a left-back for English champions Manchester City is deployed as an attacking midfielder in the national team. The 24-year-old had a very good season with the Cityzens, winning three domestic trophies and reaching the UEFA Champions League final.
Meanwhile, Malinoviskiy is the talisman in the team. The Atalanta player can shoot, provide quality assist, dribble past opponents and deliver quality balls from set-piece situations. The 28-year-old had a very good season in Italy scoring 10 goals and registering 12 assists. Striker Roman Yaremchuk is another one to keep an eye on. The 25-year-old scored four goals in the Euro 2020 qualification campaign. He scored 17 goals in the Belgium League for Gent in the previous season.
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The Ukraine national football team represents Ukraine in men’s international football competitions and it is governed by the Ukrainian Association of Football, the governing body for football in Ukraine. Ukraine’s home ground is the Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv. The team has been a full member of UEFA and FIFA since 1992.
After Ukrainian Independence and the country’s breakaway from the Soviet Union, they played their first match against Hungary on 29 April 1992. The team’s biggest success on the world stage was reaching the quarter-finals in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which also marked the team’s debut in the finals of a major championship.
Ukraine qualified for Euro 2020 as group winners ahead of Portugal for the first time in their history. It will be their third appearance at Euro’s having qualified for the European Championship in 2012 as co-hosts and in 2016 via the play-off. Ukraine’s former star striker turned head coach Andriy Shevchenko will be hoping to lead his team to the knock-out stage of the competition for the first time. They are placed in Group C alongside Netherlands, Austria and North Macedonia. During the qualifying campaign, they went unbeaten in 2019 and defeated defending champion Portugal 2-1 and thrashed Serbia 5-0.
But, in 2020 the team was badly hit by COVID-19 outbreak in the team and had to suffer a humiliating 7-1 loss against France. Since then, Ukraine has come a long way and head into the rescheduled Euro 2020 undefeated in 2021 and achieved victories over Ireland and Cyprus in the warm-up games. Ukraine has a poor record in European Championship. They won just one match when they made their debut in the competition in 2012 and lost all their matches at Euro 2016.
Key players
Ukraine mostly play with a 4-3-3 formation with Oleksander Zinchenko and Ruslan Malinoviskiy as their key players. Zinchenko, who plays as a left-back for English champions Manchester City is deployed as an attacking midfielder in the national team. The 24-year-old had a very good season with the Cityzens, winning three domestic trophies and reaching the UEFA Champions League final.
Meanwhile, Malinoviskiy is the talisman in the team. The Atalanta player can shoot, provide quality assist, dribble past opponents and deliver quality balls from set-piece situations. The 28-year-old had a very good season in Italy scoring 10 goals and registering 12 assists. Striker Roman Yaremchuk is another one to keep an eye on. The 25-year-old scored four goals in the Euro 2020 qualification campaign. He scored 17 goals in the Belgium League for Gent in the previous season.
