Ukraine must gear up for aerial battles and find a way to contain a physical Swedish strike force if they are to reach their maiden European Championship quarter-final, coach Andriy Shevchenko said on Monday.
While Ukraine’s four goals in the tournament have been shared equally by strike duo Andriy Yarmolenko and Roman Yaremchuk, their opponents boast a wealth of goalscoring options thriving on long balls.
Swedish centre forwards Robin Quaison and Alexander Isak have been well supported by Emil Forsberg and Sebastian Larsson on the flanks, but Shevchenko is hoping to reverse that trend and urged his defenders to take control of the box.
“We have to be very cautious at set pieces because Sweden make great use of them,” former Ukraine striker Shevchenko told reporters ahead of Tuesday’s last-16 clash at Glasgow’s Hampden Park.
“It will also be very important to win second balls. There will be a lot of battles on the pitch.
“They have two great strikers, and are very strong physically so rarely lose one-on-one battles. We must be ready for any scenario.”
Ukraine qualified for the last 16 as one of the four best third-placed teams from the group stage.
They were well below par in their final group game, a 1-0 defeat by Austria, but Shevchenko believes the pressure is off now his players have progressed to the knockout stage of a major tournament for the first time since the 2006 World Cup.
“We achieved the result we wanted,” Shevchenko said.
“Now we have a game to improve and we’ll do everything we can to achieve a positive result.”
The coach also confirmed winger Oleksandr Zubkov has failed to recover from a calf injury he sustained in their opening match against the Netherlands.
“Zubkov is still with us but he’s going through a rehab. It wouldn’t be right to talk about it right now. He won’t be ready for the game,” Shevchenko added.
The timing of the substitutions made by Sweden boss Janne Andersson has played a huge part in his side making it to the last 16 at Euro 2020 where they will face Ukraine on Tuesday, but at least one fan hasn’t been happy – his wife Ulrika.
Andersson introduced Robin Quaison in the 1-0 win over Slovakia and he promptly won the penalty that decided the game in Sweden’s favour. He put on Dejan Kulusevski against Poland who created two goals in a 3-2 win, including the late winner for Viktor Claesson. But Mrs. Andersson hasn’t been impressed.
“You can always discuss how early or late you make changes, it’s an eternal discussion — not least with my wife Ulrika. She says I always make changes too late,” Andersson told a news conference.
Asked how happy she was that Kulusevski came on 10 minutes into the second half against Poland, the 59-year-old laughed.
“In principle she’s never happy with my changes, we don’t need to go into the details,” he said.
Andersson has had the task of choosing between attacking players such as Alexander Isak, Marcus Berg, Emil Forsberg, Quaison, Kulusevski and Claesson, with all of them contributing to a surprise Group E victory for the Swedes, often while coming off the bench.
“It’s been a long time since I felt I didn’t have much to bring on, and when you have that, it’s a bit tough to be a coach. We have a breadth in the qualities of our squad that means we can bring on players with different skills. I’m happy to have the squad we have that can change things in the game,” he explained.
The Swedes secured a scoreless draw with group favourites Spain before beating Slovakia and Poland to emerge with seven points as winger Forsberg scored three goals.
Having endured the heat of Seville and St Petersburg, Andersson is happy to be in Glasgow where the climate is more like home.
“This feels a lot more like Gothenburg, where we’ve come from, but the conditions when you play the games in are the ones you have to deal with, it’s as simple as that,” Andersson said.
The winner of Tuesday’s tie will meet the winner of England – Germany, but the Swedes are looking no further than Ukraine, who came third in Group C behind Netherlands and Austria.
“Ukraine has around 50 million people, it’s a big nation with many good footballers … there are no ‘golden tickets’ in football, all the teams that went through are good teams,” he added.
