“We tried, but this mountain turned out to be too high for us,” said Ukrainian team boss Andrei Shevchenko after the lesson in the quarter-finals in Rome against England (0: 4).
England revealed the blatant defensive weaknesses in the squad of the former world-class striker. “The England win was hard deserved,” said captain Andrei Jarmolenko. “We were eliminated, but you should look to whom: I think we lost to one of the best teams in the world.” The tools were missing against a top team.
“We played a great tournament,” said Shevchenko proudly. “We stayed true to our style, the players gave everything. It is probably a little too early for us to climb mountains like this.”
As third in Austria Group C, the Ukrainians had slipped into the round of 16 and eliminated Sweden there. In 2012 and 2016 they were eliminated in the preliminary round. Only at the 2006 World Cup under team boss Oleg Blochin did it continue after the group stage before it was also the last stop against Italy in the quarterfinals.
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