Late on Tuesday evening, the Ukraine national team played their second friendly match against Scotland in preparation for the 2022 World Cup qualification semi-final match. The opponent of Alexander Petrakov’s team was Empoli, who previously solved the tournament duties in Serie A and retained the residence permit for the next season, as a result of which he graciously agreed to test his strength against the background of blue-yellows.

In general, this game should not be taken too seriously, because the players of the Ukrainian national team are still on the way to returning to their former status. We still have enough mistakes as against Borussia Mönchengladbach, but with the final whistle, the scoreboard still showed the victory for the Blue-Yellows (3:1), which is not very pleasing. At least mentally, we approach the duel with the Scots in good shape.

What else can be distinguished from the results of yesterday’s match?

1. Defensive play is the main concern.

On the eve of the four defenders of the Ukrainian national team were Karavaev, Zabarny, Popov and Matvienko, and Empoli especially managed to tear our players to pieces and force them to make mistakes. First of all, the problem with mutual insurance caught my eye. The central defenders were not able to provide a calm full-back offensively, because when our Italians lost, they immediately loaded the ball into the free zones, which bore fruit almost in the first minutes. Empoli could have scored two goals at the start of the game and so Petrakov’s feelings on the touchline in these parts are quite understandable.

It is important to note that although Empoli is in the lower half of the Serie A standings, he is not at all such a typical outsider. This team has a philosophy of its own and tries to handle the ball as competently as possible, especially in the final stages of organized attacks. In terms of passing passes, for example, Empoli is in fourth place in the current season of Serie A with 316 passes (only Inter, Milan and Lazio are higher) and Aurelio’s so-called “smart passes”. Andreazzolli is in seventh place in the national competition, just behind Lazio, Inter, Milan, Atalanta, Verona and Napoli. Either way, keep in mind that Empoli is above well-known Italian giants Juventus even though Juventus is going through tough times right now.

It was the safety net and lack of concentration at the end of the first half that led to a goal against the Ukrainian national team. After a missed scoring chance by Tsygankov, the “blue-yellows” could not quickly focus on the opponent’s sudden attack and turned out to be ruthless. Although there was enough chaos in the second half, especially in the middle zone, the situation generally improved. As such, Petrakov will need to properly break his head about both the personnel component of the defense component and the tactical understanding and awareness of certain players.

2. Key competition planned in the center of the field

Matches against Borussia Mönchengladbach and Empoli have proven the accuracy of experts who have been talking about the talent of Dnipro-1 midfielder Oleksandr Pikhalenok for the past few seasons. And it’s not just the two goals scored that make the midfielder definitely get more attention. Pikhalyonok is a type of player that can be useful both in the plans and management of the game by the departed headquarters of Andriy Shevchenko, and in the current requirements of Alexander Petrakov.

In addition to excellent performance, Pikhalenok is, first of all, a central midfielder with a built-in microchip of the latest model, which allows Alexander to often be in the spotlight. Both goals were the result of Pikhalyonok’s targeted and powerful shot and, most importantly, he didn’t hesitate to use it. In addition, Pikhalenok is in the top 5 UPL-2021/22 in terms of the number of smart passes (20), second only to Buyalsky (33) and Tsygankov (29). But the undisputed leader in the accuracy of such transitions is Alexander – 70%! For example, for the same Buyalsky it is only 45%. Therefore, what the Dnepr-1 midfielder is probably bribing Petrakov and his deputies with is work efficiency.

However, against Scotland, most likely, more experienced masters will play in the center of the field – we are talking, of course, about Zinchenko and Malinovsky. Although the fact of Pikhalenok’s quality work in the friendly matches fortunately indicates that the Blue-Yellows should not have any special problems in this region. At the very least, Oleksandr can come off calmly as a change, while only ensuring that all coaching plans that may arise in the core region are fulfilled.

3. Mudrik on the left – no alternative

After the real decline of Yevhen Konoplyanka’s career in the national team, an open problem arose with the left winger. But it looks like Shakhtar, who is currently actively hunted by Bayer, will be resolved at the expense of 21-year-old Mykhailo Mudryk.

Mudrik was extremely active against Empoli, especially in the first half. The attacks of the “blue-yellows” were often built on this, especially when ours advanced with the help of long passes. Mudryk gave Ukraine some advantage due to his speed and technique, and he picked up two or three opponents and found some pretty good free partners with the help of a pass. The last quality is perhaps the main achievement of Mikhail, because earlier he was very fond of individual work. Now from Mudrik there is less immediate danger to the opponent’s goal, but he looks like a full-fledged team leader. If Tsygankov also gains his best fitness in the next few weeks, there will be no need to worry about his wings in the Ukraine national team’s game against Scotland.

4. Petrakov still has a lot of work to do

In the coming days, the coaching staff of the Ukrainian national team, headed by Oleksandr Petrakov, has a lot of work to do in his wards. First of all, the team doesn’t seem physically ready for a duel with Scotland. It makes sense that after a serious pause some of our players are not in the best shape and injuries are most likely the result of this factor.

At the same time, Petrakov will have to find a fine line in order to bring the wards to the maximum of their available opportunities, but at the same time not “drive” them to the end. Against Empoli, the intensity of football dropped noticeably in the second half of the second half and the technical team was in no hurry to make further changes, considering the need to play another practice against Croatia’s Rijeka on Wednesday.

In a week, our other legionnaires will join the national team, such as Zinchenko, Mikolenko and Malinovsky, who are almost at the peak of their abilities. And bringing all this diverse team together on a common ground, both physically and psychologically, will be almost a key task for Petrakov. We might dare to suggest that in this case even questions of tactics would be somewhat in the background. . . .

5. You need more sparring

The game with Empoli proved the lack of an appropriate level of understanding among the players of the Ukrainian national team. This led to defensive errors, faulty passes and the lack of attacks in free zones created by the efforts of our other players. At the same time, Empoli was a good litmus test, showing the level of readiness and the problems that exist in our team. A mid-level team, but with a very clear and competent play structure, it gave him such important thought food, even though he lost to a more respectable opponent, namely the Ukrainian team. This type of sparring can be called high-quality and necessary.

If Rijeka presents such resistance to Ukraine today, Petrakov will almost certainly be pleased. It’s true that the game against Scotland is only two weeks away, so new sparring partners are needed. They say that they have contacts with some African teams… It is not possible for Africans to form the most suitable squads against us anymore and there are not so many teams in terms of football style in the African continent. It can mimic Scotland play, but… If there is no way to simulate tactics, there would at least be an additional chance to improve the physics and level of team interactions.