EURO 2012 PREVIEW - UKRAINE

EUROS HISTORY – 2012 first appearance

ROUTE TO QUALIFICATION – Qualified as semi hosts

FIXTURES –

11 June 2012         Olympic Stadium, Kiev           Sweden

15 June 2012         Donbass Arena, Donetsk        France

19 June 2012         Donbass Arena, Donetsk        England

Manager – Oleh Blokhin

Captain – Andriy Shevchenko

           Antoniy Tomyschuk

Having never played in the euro championships, Ukraine have a date with destiny when they will feature for the first time in the 2012 edition on home soil led by a man who took them to the FIFA 06 quarter finals.

Go search through the internet and the things that strike are that there is not much of an illustrious history associated with this nation. Part of the illustrious Soviet Union until 1991, Ukraine played their first competitive match against Hungary on April 12 1992.

They do boast of a very proud football factory that has produced some great footballers over the years. Even from the times when they were part of the USSR they produced a Ballon D’or winner in Oleh Blokhin, the man who is charged with leading them into the championships this year. Andrei Kanchelskis, Viktor Onopko, Sergei Yuran and Oleg Salenko were some of the other names who though born in Ukraine preferred to play for Russia after the demise of USSR. Take the EURO 88 for instance, where the Soviet team that participated had 7 out of the playing 11 as Ukrainians.

Of the current lot you have the current captain, talismanic former Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko who needs no introduction, his deputy Anatoliy Tymoshchuk having the distinction of being named as the best Ukrainian footballer ever, Oleksandr Shovkovskiy and Serhiy Rebrov to name among others.

Blokhin is in his second stint as coach of the team since last April after he had earlier stepped down in 2007 following their failure to qualify for the last Euros in 2008. Still boasting of old warhorses in Shevchenko and Tymoshchuk, Ukraine will be difficult to beat as they have the players who have the know-how to operate in a big tournament with loads of unrivalled experience. He prefers to operate in various versions of 4-4-2 or the 4-2-3-1.

They boast of some good players among their ranks among which Oleksandr Aliyev does stand out. A modern day schemer with very good playmaking abilities, he holds the key to unlock defenses and Ukraine will need him to be at his best to stand a chance of competing against the top dogs of Europe. One of the more notable young attacking players in the squad is Yevgen Konopolyanka, a good dribbler with change of pace; he has been deployed on the left of the midfield by Blokhin. Former Barcelona flop Dmytro Chygrynskiy, a centre-half by trade and one of the mainstays of the Shakhtar Donetsk team last year that lost to Barcelona in the quarters is also expected to feature, Dynamo Kiev forward Andriy Yarmolenko will be another goal scoring threat.

Being drawn in a tough group of Sweden, England, and France they will have to carry out some giant killing acts if they need to stand a chance to qualify for the quarter finals. Perennial underachievers England will be no pushovers as Fabio Capello will look to sign off on his stint as coach of the team on a high. Sweden have always been a very competitive and efficient team unit, France buoyed by their impressive qualifying run and in their first major tournament since the FIFA 10 fiasco, will be under pressure with eyes of the entire world upon them. Ukraine will need to be at their best defensively. Beating Sweden and at least scalping one of the big guns will be a must if they need to stand a chance to progress to the quarters.

The home support will surely be buoyed by such a huge tournament being staged for the first time and the team featuring in its first Euros will carry the expectations of the whole nation when they take centrestage for their first clash against Sweden at their spiritual home – the Olympic stadium in Kiev.


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