Vitaliy Mykolenko
Everton defender Vitaliy Mykolenko has apologised to Ukraine after they were knocked out of the World Cup qualifying by Sweden.
Tribuna report comments from the Everton full-back today following Ukraine’s 3-1 defeat to Sweden on Thursday evening.
Gyökeres inspires Sweden
Ukraine hosted Sweden in their World Cup qualifier semi-final last night but failed to turn up for the occasion. A hattrick from Viktor Gyökeres sent the away side to the final, with Matviy Ponomarenko’s 91st minute goal nothing but a consolation.
It was a miserable evening for Ukraine, who had enjoyed a far better qualifying campaign than their counterparts. They finished second behind France in Group D, while Sweden finished fourth in Group B.
Thus, Mykolenko and his side would have been confident of qualifying. Instead, they faltered badly in a performance he thinks was disgraceful.
“The emotions are probably the same as those of all of Ukraine who watched football, I came to say thank you to the people, those who watched this disgrace,” he said.
“I wanted to apologise, but there’s no point in apologizing after the fight. I just wanted to say thank you for watching and cheering. I don’t know what else to say.”
Toothless display
The Everton defender was at a loss to explain how Ukraine were beaten in the manner they were, particularly after a strong qualifying campaign.
That included a big 2-0 win over Iceland back in November to secure their place in the play-offs in the first place.
Confidence was high, but instead it is a sixth defeat in seven play-offs for the nation. More detailed analysis will follow, but for now Mykolenko is ashamed of a ‘toothless’ display.
“I don’t know, there’s nothing to analyse, I won’t say anything, we’ll analyse the theory – it’s too late to analyse anything,” he added.
“It’s just a shame how toothlessly we came out and played. If we can give an example of the match with Iceland, how we fought for this play-off to get here. We fought, all of Ukraine was cheering for us, and there was a strong team on the field.
“And today it wasn’t like that. I can’t explain why, maybe it just wasn’t our day. But whatever it is, we will be stronger.”
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