June 24, 2016

Ukraine drops Euro Cup to Poland with 0-1 loss

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Poland got off to an aggressive start, missing two chances to take the lead inside the opening five minutes of the final Group C match played on June 21 at Stade Veladrome in Marseille, France. Arkadiusz Milik broke down the left side into the penalty area, but his blast was caught by goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov. Moments later, star striker Robert Lewandowski side-footed from close range after a low cross from the left found him in the penalty area.

Already eliminated Ukraine struck back when Andriy Yarmolenko delivered a cross that had Poland keeper Lukasz Fabianski flapping before it was cleared. As Poland found itself backpedaling, Yevhen Konoplyanka made a fine run to set up Roman Zozulya, who was denied by a last-ditch block by Michal Pazdan. Yarmolenko proceeded to miss his own chance, swiping an effort wide after a good run, before a Lewandowski shot on the turn at the other end was blocked.

Konoplyanka hit the side netting with a strike from outside the area at 30 minutes as Ukraine showed far more effort than was witnessed in its opening group stage defeats to Germany and Northern Ireland.

After a quick start, Poland alarmingly faded until some optimism returned just before the break when Tomasz Jodlowiec’s shot from the edge of the box was saved.

Minutes after Oleksandr Zinchenko’s header flew over the goal, substitute Jakub Blaszczykowski broke the deadlock, shooting one home after a corner kick from a sharp Milik touch. Poland was galvanized and almost doubled its lead within a minute when Bartosz Kapustka, set up by Lewandowski, fired into the side netting.

While Ukraine desperately tried to get back into the match, Yarmolenko’s fierce shot was blocked, then a dangerous cross was headed clear. As Ukraine’s quest for its first goal of the tournament became increasingly fruitless, the team almost went down 2-0 when Milik, unmarked from a cross, failed with his header.

Ukraine had several late chances when Artem Fedetskiy got clear down the right side, but Zozulya could only direct his header wide, and Ruslan Rotan’s drive was saved. Konoplyanka’s one final snap shot was easily dealt with and Ukraine bowed out of the tournament without a goal.

With the 0-1 loss against Poland, Ukraine finished in Group C in fourth place (last in the group) with zero points after five goals against and zero goals for after three matches.

War affected Ukraine at Euro Cup

The two-year-old war in eastern Ukraine had a major effect on the Ukrainian national team’s failure at the European Championships, according to head coach Mykhaylo Fomenko. “Football in Ukraine is not an exceptional thing, in our lives we have a hard situation, a conflict, football is influenced by that,” Fomenko told reporters in Marseille ahead of the final match against Poland. “Our domestic league suffered too because of it, there is a chain reaction, the consequences of it are that we could not fulfill our task here to get out of the group,” he said.

Two defeats against Germany and Northern Ireland saw Ukraine become the first country to be eliminated at Euro 2016. They only had pride to play for in its final match versus Poland. “We say sorry for that to our supporters,” Fomenko said in Marseille.

In the last decade, powerful Ukrainian clubs Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk brought in foreign stars that made them feared in the Champions and Europa leagues. However, the conflict and economic crisis in eastern Ukraine has seen the clubs lose funding and home venues become too dangerous for opposing sides to visit. Security fears and budget cuts have seen these stars leave to play in safer European countries.

In searching for reasons to explain Ukraine’s poor performance at the 2016 European Championship, one must take into account many factors. These include the war in eastern Ukraine, the Dynamo-Shakhtar conflict, coaching strategies, the squad’s lack of competitive talent and the seemingly missing motivation/inspiration usually prevalent at a meaningful international sports tournament. It will be interesting to see the future ramifications of this dismal showing by Ukraine’s national soccer team.

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