"We are very sympathetic to what is happening in Ukraine, but..." England coach makes statement before match with Ukrainians

England head coach Gareth Southgate, answering questions from journalists before the 2024 UEFA European Championship qualifier against Ukraine, spoke about the situation in our country. According to the coach, he sympathises with our people, but this will not affect the quality of his wards' play.

"At the very beginning of the war, we saw Ukraine coming to Scotland for the 2022 World Cup play-offs. This is a very proud group of players who are fully committed to their fans and will do everything to please them. Of course, we are very sympathetic to what is happening in this country, but tomorrow is a football match and we are fully focused on winning the game," SkySports quoted Southgate as saying.

The head coach also spoke about the team's personnel problems.

"Jordan Henderson didn't train much with Liverpool last week because of illness, but he's ready to work now".

When asked about the fitness of Jude Bellingham and Calvin Phillips, Southgate added: "They're all fine. Kelvin played his first 90 minutes in the game against Italy, so obviously we'll have to assess his recovery. We have to find the right balance between integrity and consistency and also with the freshness of the players."

It is worth noting that the day before, the England national team beat Italy in the first Euro 2024 qualifying match. At the same time, our future rivals lost their defensive leader. In addition, earlier the British lost their top scorer in 2023, Marcus Rashford, for the game against our team.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, Ukraine will start the qualifying tournament on Sunday, March 26. Ruslan Rotan's team will compete against the England national team at the legendary Wembley Stadium. The TV channels that will organise the live broadcast are already known.

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