In the first of two warm-ups for the 2016 European Football Championship to be played in France from June 10 to July 10, Ukraine defeated Cyprus, 1-0. The international friendly match was played at Chorno-morets Stadium in Odesa on March 24.
Taras Stepanenko’s first-half goal (40th minute) earned an experienced Ukraine side the victory in a free-flowing match.
The home side, playing without a few key injured players and substituting freely in the second half, tinkered with its line-up while preparing for the upcoming Euro 2016. At the start, Ukraine’s head coach Mykhaylo Fomenko fielded his first team, minus key injured forwards Yevhen Konoplyanka and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk and top goaltender Andriy Pyatov. The last 45 minutes saw six substitutions on the Ukrainian side.
Stepanenko, the Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder, followed up to finish from close range at the far post after Cyprus keeper Constanti-nos Panayi saved Roman Zozulya’s header.
Following a dominant first half, Ukraine continued to force the play at the start of the second half before shifting gears at the 70-minute mark. Cyprus created a few solid openings in the closing stages, pressing Ukraine’s defense. Goalkeeper Denis Boyko was tested several times with Cyprus forwards sending a good scoring chance wide and hitting a post.
Ukraine 1: Wales 0
Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv was the site of the second pre-Euro 2016 friendly between Ukraine and Wales on March 28, won by hosts Ukraine, 1-0, thanks to a Andriy Yarmolenko half-volley goal from a well-designed set play.
The Dynamo Kyiv winger, who has been rumored to be the target of several English clubs, tallied the match’s only goal in the 28th minute off a Ruslan Rotan free kick. The Wales club tried springing an offside trap from Rotan’s lofted kick, but its miscalculation left Yarmolenko free to score with a shot on the turn, despite a touch from goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey. The goal was reminiscent of the set-piece goal scored by Stepanenko in Ukraine’s 1-0 defeat of Cyprus four days earlier.
Fomenko’s side played two inspired tune-ups in preparation for the upcoming Euro 2016 where the team has drawn Group C with Germany, Poland and Northern Ireland.
Welshman Tom Lawrence forced Ukraine goalkeeper Pyatov to tip the ball over the bar with a powerful angled shot in the first half.
Denys Gamash came close to doubling the lead with a header wide of the far post from still another set piece, while Wales came close twice in extra time on efforts by substitutes Jazz Richards and Joe Ledley.
Politics on the pitch
Yevhen Seleznyov has played in 48 international matches and scored 11 goals. The 30-year-old striker was a significant offensive force when Ukraine beat Slovenia in the qualifying playoffs for Euro 2016. Since those playoffs, Seleznyov has signed to play for a Russian soccer club, Kuban Krasnodar.
In late March 2016, one of Ukraine’s most promising young players, Oleksandr Zinchenko, was asked to join the country’s under-21 side, only to be excluded from the squad. The Ukrainian Football Federation officially said the 19-year-old midfielder was ill with a virus. His Russian club, FC Ufa, claimed the youngster was in excellent health.
The above are two examples of Ukraine being questioned about whether political bias has been present in its selection of players for its national football team. Is it merely coincidence that players from Russian clubs are no longer on the active roster? The 25-man squad for the recently contested friendlies against Cyprus and Wales listed players based in six countries, but none who practice their sport in Russia.
Political tensions are intense between Ukraine and Russia since the latter’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Russian involvement for the separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Senior Russian soccer executives have accused Ukraine of political bias. Russian Football Union honorary president Vyacheslav Koloshov told the Russian newspaper Sport Express that Ukraine’s squad was “a continuation of state policy.”
The Ukrainian Football Federation insists the players on its team were picked strictly on merit. “There was no other reason for the selection of players in the squad, including politics,” the federation said in a statement.
Seleznyov was officially listed as injured for the Wales friendly on March 28.