Luis CORTES: “The situation in Ukraine is very difficult”

Luis Cortes, head coach of the Ukraine women’s national team, shared his feelings from the start of the long-awaited blue and yellow meeting and commented on our girls’ chances in the upcoming matches of the 2023 World Cup qualifiers. Scotland and Hungary.

Luiz, the 2023 World Cup qualifiers were supposed to take place in April, but a large-scale Russian military invasion of Ukraine has begun. What do you think about the resumption of the education process and the fact that girls are still able to come together in such difficult times for the country?

“It’s a really good feeling. I’m very happy that all of us, the players and the coaching staff are together to represent Ukraine.

We have a very difficult situation. I heard the story of each player from all representatives of our team. It is very important for us that we are together again and try to fight for the country by playing football on the field. This is exactly why we are here.

– How is the atmosphere in the team, haven’t you seen the team for a long time?

– The atmosphere is really good. It’s been a long time since we last saw each other. Our training camp in April was canceled due to the war. But now we are together again and this is very important to us. Players are happy to be together in a safe place here. In general, there are now a lot of Ukrainians in this country (Poland. – Ed.).

We know we are here to play football. We are here to replay Scotland and Hungary. These will be very difficult fights. But we are here to put our fans at ease. I believe Ukraine needs good news and happy moments in these difficult times.

– What can you say about the playing conditions of the players, since almost the entire composition of the national team has changed clubs since the beginning of the Russian military occupation?

— It’s not easy because most of the players came from new teams and new countries. They did not have the opportunity to play football for a certain period of time. And of course, this is not the best situation in terms of physical fitness.

However, I would like to thank all the teams and associations that hosted the Ukrainian football players. They trained and played in different clubs, but gained experience playing abroad. Not the best moment of the season but I think we are ready to beat Scotland and Hungary. I think we can hope for good results in these struggles.

– The first match of the Ukrainian national team will be played against the strong English team Scotland. What do you expect from this fight?

— We know that Scotland is a very tough opponent. We already met him in Hampden Park. But we won that match until the 93rd minute, so we will have a chance to win this match as well. Of course it will be difficult because there are so many good players in Scotland. But we also have good players in our team.

We all have a lot of motivation because we need to win in the World Cup qualifiers to hold on to a chance to make it to the playoffs. If we show our game, play our way and control some details, we have a chance to win.