Evgeniy Levchenko is confident that Ukraine will step off the field against the Dutch national team on Sunday evening with a good result. The chairman of the players’ union VVCS suspects that the the Dutch squad will advance to the eighth finals as group head, but also sees that the 5-3-2 system of national coach Frank de Boer has not always had its desired effect. “If there is ever a chance for Ukraine to draw or win in secret, it will be on Sunday,” Levchenko told the newspaper. General Newspaper.
The the Dutch squad will immediately meet a dangerous team with Ukraine on Sunday evening, which managed to keep reigning European champions Portugal under them in the qualifying cycle for the tournament. “Shevchenko has made it a close collective”, Levchenko also sees. “We won the European Championship qualifying group with only four goals against. Ukraine is performing remarkably well against better teams. In October we beat Spain, while we only had thirty percent of the game and last March we drew against France. Against Finland , Bahrain and Kazakhstan it went a lot less. They let us make the game.”
Levchenko played eight international matches for Ukraine between 2002 and 2009, but spent most of his career for clubs from the Netherlands, including Vitesse, FC Groningen and Sparta Rotterdam. The former midfielder thinks that the strength of the Ukrainian team is largely in the technical staff. “Shevchenko has chosen Italian assistants,” he continues. “They prepare the players very well. In March they even managed to fight Kylian Mbappe against France. Frenkie de Jong and Georginio Wijnaldum are great players, but they were not yet in their power against Scotland and Georgia. They were swimming a bit and had to run way too much.”
De Boer will start on Sunday evening in a 5-3-2 system, as he did in the last exhibition games against Scotland (2-2) and Georgia (3-0). Levchenko saw that it was not always good what the the Dutch put on the mat in recent weeks. “They gave away quite a few chances and have not yet mastered the new system with five defenders. This is a good time to meet them. Normally we have to take the points in the other group matches with Austria and North Macedonia. But the Netherlands is not yet convincing, although of course they have fantastic players,” concludes Levchenko.
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