In the final match of Group E, the Ukrainian team tied with team of Belgium and completed its performance at Euro 2024. Before the match in Stuttgart, a unique situation arose. All four teams playing in this quartet scored three points. The Ukrainian team had the worst situation due to a heavy defeat against the Romanians in the first round.
Euro 202426 June 2024 • starts at 19:00Finished
UkraineUkraine0 : 0
BelgiumBelgium
The Zhovto-Blakit team did not have Mikhail Mudrik and Viktor Tsygankov in their squad for the game. The day before they trained according to an individual program. Tsygankov also missed the match against the Slovak team, but Mudryk was an indispensable starting player in Sergei Rebrov’s team in the two starting matches. The head coach of the Ukrainian national team, understanding the tournament layout, switched to the “3-5-2” scheme and released both Roman Yaremchuk and Artem Dovbik from the first minutes. In games against the national teams of Romania and Slovakia, the former came off the bench, replacing the latter.
Before the decisive game of the group tournament, Yaremchuk, who played four seasons in Belgium for Gent and one for Bruges, met with Ukrainian journalists at the national team’s base in Wiesbaden and did not skimp on compliments to his opponent. “This is a top team,” the Zhovto-Blakyt striker emphasized. “Lukaku, De Bruyne, Doku are world-class football players. We must do something incredible to take points in a meeting with such a team. I know Belgian football very well. This team has an interesting system of play, a tactically savvy coach. Now they are under a little pressure, so they will play against us with increased motivation.»
Ukrainian football players were also under strong pressure after the defeat in the match with the Romanian national team. Even the victory over the Slovak team did not remove him completely. Shakhtar midfielder Georgiy Sudakov, in an interview with one of the Kyiv newspapers, drew attention to one of the main problems: “We are not successful in the first halves. We start playing only when we concede. Head coach Rebrov constantly focuses on this point, and the players themselves think about it . Only they don’t find an answer.”
Indeed, in the meeting with the Slovak team, the Ukrainians lost the first half — 0:1 and snatched victory in the second, scoring two goals. For 21-year-old Shakhtar midfielder Sudakov, as well as for 27-year-old Dynamo Kyiv defender Oleksandr Tymchik, the match against the Belgium national team was the 20th game for the national team. As expected, Anatoly Trubin appeared in the Zhovto-Blakitny goal. One unsuccessful match at Euro 2024 for Andrei Lunin ruined a great season with Real Madrid. And Trubin does not play in a seedy club, but in Benfica and played 28 games this season as part of the Lisbon team.
The Belgian national team was missing midfielder Dodi Lukebakio from the Spanish Sevilla team, who had already received two yellow cards in the first two matches. The stars listed by Yaremchuk took to the field. The first danger at Trubin's goal arose at the beginning of the match, when De Bruyne got away from his guardian and rolled the ball into the penalty area to Lukaku. The powerful Romelu pushed aside two defenders of the Ukrainian national team at once, but he did not have enough strength to strike. For Trubin, this was an easy warm-up.
In the first half, both teams did not take risks and played extremely carefully. The Belgians' chief creative force, De Bruyne, never created 100% scoring chances for his partners. Both teams, of course, knew how things were going in Frankfurt, where the national teams of Romania and Slovakia met. The Ukrainian team still needed the victory more than anyone else. Only Rebrov’s team did not create 100% scoring chances near Cohen Castells’ goal. In the middle of the half, Dovbik twisted the Belgian defenders in the area of the penalty area, but there was no accentuated strike in this episode. Shortly before the break, the same Dovbik failed to connect with Yaremchuk's cross at the far post.
Everyone expected that in the second half the Ukrainians would go forward in force and open up. Only in the first minutes after the break the game did not change. No one took risks, no one increased the speed. In the 57th minute Rebrov made a forced substitution, releasing on the left flank of defense instead of Vitaliy Mykolenko, who had received a slight injury, Oleksandr Zinchenko, who has experience in this role, and not just anywhere, but in the English Premier League.
The Belgian national team gradually moved the game towards Trubin's goal, but it never came to the point of real threats. In the 61st minute, Belgian head coach Domenico Tedesco made a double substitution, bringing on Yannick Carrasco and Aurel Mangal instead of Youri Tielemans and Leandro Trossard. In the 67th minute, the players of the Ukrainian team made a mistake in the center of the field, but Carrasco, who picked up the ball, failed to take advantage of the gift. It seemed that by the middle of the second half both teams were not so much playing as they were waiting for news from Gelsenkirchen.
In the 70th minute, Rebrov made a triple substitution. Literally immediately after this, the teams exchanged dangerous chances. First, Carrasco's shot was pulled by Trubin, and then the Ukrainians ran into a counterattack together against two defenders, but Dovbik failed to handle the ball and shoot. Lukaku was almost invisible in the Belgians' attack, but Tedesco continued to believe in his goalscorer. He removed Doku from the field, but left Lukaku.
And Rebrov went for broke in the 80th minute, removing one of the three central defenders and releasing Andrei Yarmolenko onto the field. Either they have stopped being afraid of Lukaku, or the time has come to take risks. The most dangerous moment at the Castells goal occurred after a corner kick by substitute Ruslan Malinovsky. The Genoa midfielder, seeing that there was no defender at the near post, tried to spin the ball directly into the goal. At the last moment, the Belgian goalkeeper averted the threat.
It would be a great exaggeration to say that the Ukrainian national team rushed forward in large numbers and free zones appeared in the defense, but in the 87th minute the Belgians found themselves with three of them in Trubin’s penalty area against two defenders. Only Tedesco’s team did not take advantage of this opportunity to score. In the 90th minute, the Belgian head coach's patience came to an end, and Loi Openda came on the field instead of Lukaku.
English referee Anthony Taylor added just four minutes. The stoppage time began with a dangerous shot from Sudakov, which hit Castells exactly. The Belgians, who were satisfied with the score, openly played for time — and held out until the final whistle. A goalless draw brought them a ticket to the playoffs from second place, and the winners of the group were the Romanians, who expectedly drew with the Slovaks.