EURO 2024 Preview: Ukraine's young guns gearing up to fight for a wounded nation

How they got to EURO 2024

The ongoing conflict on home soil has meant this has been a tough period in the history of Ukraine. 

However, Rebrov’s men have a chance to offer a much-needed distraction this summer for those back home with a strong showing in Germany, and he understands how much the tournament means to their compatriots. 

"All the players, me personally, are getting lots of messages from our fighters, from our soldiers, from our friends who are now fighting for the freedom of Ukraine," the head coach revealed. 

It’ll be Rebrov’s first major tournament, though, for Ukraine it’s a fourth successive appearance at a European Championships. It’s not been an easy road to get there, with Ukraine having been pitted in a qualifying group containing the finalists of EURO 2020 - England and Italy. Yet, even despite that, and without any home advantage, they still came within a whisker of qualification, losing out on second place to Italy on goal difference alone. 

This meant the Eastern Europeans had to do it the hard way via the play-offs, but they did so with a late comeback success over Bosnia and Herzegovina followed by another late victory over Iceland - all four of their strikes in those ties arrived after half-time. 

Whether that signals that we could expect late drama in their group stage matches remains to be seen, yet, having started with defeats in each of their past two appearances at European finals, any form of success in the opener against Romania will be seen as crucial, especially with even tougher tests ahead, most notably against Belgium who also occupy Group E along with Slovakia. 

That said, an imposing 4-0 win over Moldova ahead of boarding the plane to Germany should have definitely boosted confidence in the camp. 

Strenghts - Real quality

While Ukraine might not have a squad that can match Europe’s traditional big boys, there’s no denying there is some impressive depth to Rebrov’s group. 

Duo Artem Dovbyk and Viktor Tsygankov have excelled at LaLiga surprise package Girona - scoring a combined 32 league goals this season. As has Illia Zarabnyi at Bournemouth while goalkeeper Andriy Lunin played 30 games across all competitions for Real Madrid during the last campaign. 

That’s not to mention the likes of Oleksandr Zinchenko, Mykhailo Mudryk, Vitalii Mykolenko and veteran attacker Andriy Yarmolenko who remains the leader of the squad. He’s closing in on 120 senior international caps, but won’t be assured of a starting berth which is a testament to the attacking talent available to Rebrov. 

Weaknesses - A tournament too soon? 

While there’s plenty of talent across this Ukraine squad, it’s a very youthful group. 

Yarmolenko, Serhiy Sydorchuk, Taras Stepanenko and Ruslan Malinovskyi boast over 320 caps between them, however, they make up the only four players from a selected squad of 26 who are over the age of 30. Those four aren’t assured of game time either. 

While a youthful edge to a side isn’t always a negative, some older heads might be required to help navigate the trials and tribulations of a major international tournament. 

Predicted XI and formation

Lunin, Konoplya, Zabarnyi, Matviyenko, Mykolenko, Brazhko, Zinchenko, Tsygankov, Sudakov, Mudryk, Dovbyk 

Rebrov has largely favoured a 4-2-3-1 for his side and that was the formation most prevalent during qualifying. That said, there’s certainly a tactical flexibility to the team and we’ve seen switches to different forms of a 4-5-1 formation at times during recent fixtures.  

It wasn’t entirely clear who would win the number one spot at the start of the year with Benfica’s Anatoliy Trubin and Madrid’s Lunin both boasting a strong pedigree. But Lunin’s form during Thibaut Courtois’ absence looks to have secured his place and he started both friendlies this month - conceding only once. 

The defence and midfield are unlikely to veer too far away from the above, however, questions hang over Everton’s Mykolenko who was forced off through injury during Ukraine's 4-0 friendly win over Moldova - the severity of that injury is not yet clear. This could mean we see Zinchenko take up a role at left-back rather than midfield. 

There’ll be plenty of pace in attack through Mudryk and Tsygankov on the flanks, while Dovbyk’s form this season makes him the prime candidate to lead Ukraine’s attack, with Heorhiy Sudakov pulling the strings just behind. 

Hottest battles for game time

Although there’s plenty of competition throughout this Ukraine squad, it’s in the wide areas where it’s set to be most fierce. 

Mudryk has failed to set the Premier League alight since making the move to Chelsea 18 months ago, and there are players, such as former Shakhtar teammate Oleksandr Zubkov, behind him who enjoyed strong domestic seasons, registering 13 goal contributions for the Ukrainian side. 

However, Mudryk has regularly stepped up on the international stage for his country - not least by scoring the crucial goal against Iceland to seal Ukraine's place in the finals, meaning he is likely to be a key pillar of the team. 

On the opposite right side, Yarmolenko remains an important player and leader for his country, and he enjoyed a strong domestic season back with Dynamo Kyiv, scoring eight goals plus three assists. 

But it was Tsygankov who started ahead of him in their final warm-up game ahead of the tournament and rewarded his manager with a goal. This suggests he’ll be lining up in the opener against Romania, with Yarmolenko most likely expected to bring threat and experience from the bench this time around. 

Prediction 

Ukraine head into the tournament having lost just two of their previous 10 international matches (W5, D2), a run which includes holding Germany and Italy to 0-0 draws. That highlights there’s an ability to compete with the best the continent has to offer, while the 4-0 thrashing of Moldova shows there’s plenty of attacking threat in the team when they’re on song. 

Getting the better of FIFA’s third-best-ranked side Belgium looks a tall order, but positive results will be expected against Romania and Slovakia which will all but seal qualification to the knockout phase. 

Winning the group sets up an enticing game against a third-placed team, however, anything less is likely to throw up much sterner tests. 

Matching their best-ever showing of reaching the quarter-final at EURO 2020 seems an achievable target for the Eastern European side, but it could all depend on where they place come the end of the group stage.