CHIZHEVSKY: “The benefits of training for the Ukrainian national team were insignificant”

Former defender of the national team of Ukraine Alexander Chizhevsky He shared Alexander Petrakov’s thoughts on the preparation of their wards for the 2022 World Cup qualifying play-off match against Scotland to be played on 1 June in Glasgow.

“Due to the aggression of Russia, Ukrainian football players found themselves in a very difficult situation, because outside the clearly defined “windows” for international matches, it is extremely difficult to find valuable sparring partners. Therefore, in my opinion, the benefits of the matches against German Borussia Mönchengladbach, Italian Empoli and Croatian Rijeka, who were not in the leading role in their home country, were insignificant. Moreover, it was clear that a completely different squad would be dealing with Scotland. The only thing that calmed me was that after these matches the Scottish scouts did not have any valuable information …

Even taking into account the fact that the head coach was experimenting a lot with the team, I was worried about how carelessly our defenders were playing. I want to remind them that the cost of missing Glasgow would be very high. Let them draw conclusions. I hope things will be different in Glasgow and thanks to the incredible dedication of our players they will be able to showcase their best and achieve a winning result.”