Ukraine Name Euro 2024 Squad

[Dave]

[Michael]

I am generally happy with the squad selection. Players like the young forward Sikan, who has really improved might be disappointed that he wasn't selected. But then again Vanat has arguably played better than Sikan this season, so it wasn't really surprising that Vanat was called up as the 3rd centre forward behind Dovbyk and Yaremchuk. There are other back-up players who had a good shout at making the squad who weren't chosen, but ultimately the players Rebrov the manager has chosen are just as good.

The main thing is that all the key players were selected. The depth in the team looks as strong as it has ever been. The creative quartet of Tsyhankov, Sudakov and Mudryk, supporting La Liga's leading scorer Dovbyk, looks a mouth watering prospect. If the attacking players pick up form and play to their potential at the Euros, they could do some serious damage. I also hope that the left-back Mykolenko recovers from his injury in time to play. While Zinchenko needs to improve his fitness issues and get back to playing how we all know he can play. All in all, it looks a very strong squad that Rebrov is taking with him to Germany.

[Michael]

The latest news is that Mykolenko will be unlikely to have fully recovered from his injury to play in Ukraine's opening match against Romania. That will most likely mean, that Zinchenko will be moved from his preferred position of central midfield, to the left-back position to cover for the injured Mykolenko. Zinchenko's midfield position, is likely to go to Shaparenko. So Shaparenko will likely start in midfield against Romania and Ukraine will hope that his impressive dribbling and passing abilities have an impact in their opening match.

Edited June 16 by Michael

[Michael]

The bookies and pundits seem to have really underestimated Ukraine in my opinion. Some of the bookies placed teams like Croatia, Switzerland, Denmark, Hungary and Poland all ahead of Ukraine in terms of chances of winning the tournament, before the competition kicked off. I'd say this Ukraine team is stronger than all those teams.

I think a lot of people forget that Ukraine reached the quarter-finals of the last Euros, with a very competent team. Three years on from those Euros and the current Ukrainian team is much stronger. At the last Euros, most of Ukraine's players played in the Ukrainian league. I remember saying on this forum, that despite the huge talent, the fact that most of their players played in Ukraine, did hold them back. Because many Ukrainian players weren't reaching their full potential as a result of not playing in the elite leagues.

However, today many of the Ukrainian players play in the top European leagues or for top European teams. Mudryk plays for Chelsea, Zinchenko for Arsenal, Mykolenko for Everton, Zabarnyi for Bournemouth, Malinovskyi for Genoa, Yaremchuk for Valencia, Lunin for Real Madrid, Trubin for Benfica, while Dovbyk and Tsyhankov play for Girona. Other experienced players like Yarmolenko have already played in the top leagues for Dortmund and West Ham, but has now returned to Dynamo Kyiv. While other players like Sudakov, Vanat, Brazhko, Shaparenko and Matviyenko look like they will leave for teams in the top European leagues this summer.

Even some Ukrainian players who play in the top European leagues like Yarmolyuk(Brentford) and Kovalenko(Atalanta/Empoli) weren't good enough to make this Ukrainian squad, neither were Sobol(Genk) or Ihnatenko(Bordeaux). Furthermore, the likes of young forward Sikan was dropped from this Ukraine squad, because the other highly rated young striker Vanat was preferred. So all in all, this Ukrainian team has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years and things look very promising.