How was the first Olympics for the Ukrainian national soccer team?

The dream of Ukrainian soccer fans came true. The Ukrainian team for the first time made it to the final tournament of the Olympics-2024, held in France.

16 national teams were the participants of the dispute for awards. Four of them represented Europe - France, Ukraine, Spain and Israel. Ruslan Rotan's charges got into the same group with the Olympic teams of Iraq, Morocco and Argentina. The tournament formula is usual - the two best teams from each of the four groups go to the playoffs.

Having flown to France in advance, our team played two control matches with the Olympic teams of Egypt (1:1) and Paraguay (2:0). The peculiarity of the Olympic tournament is that it is not held under the auspices of FIFA. This gives clubs the right to decide whether to let their players go to the Olympics or not. Ruslan Rotan faced a similar situation. Many players from Ukrainian and foreign clubs, whom he wanted to see in his team, he never got at his disposal.

The defender of English Bournemouth and the national team of Ukraine, 21-year-old Ilya Zabarnyy, said that he will not come to the national team and will prepare for the season in the APL. The new coach of Chelsea Enzo Maresca did not let Mykhailo Mudryk go, Lisbon Benfica refused to let our main goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin go to the Olympics, English Brentford did not let Egor Yarmolyuk go. We did not see neither Viktor Tsygankov, nor Artem Dovbik in the national team. But the captain of the national team Taras Stepanenko refused an invitation to the Olympic team, explaining his decision by fatigue.

I have named the names of many players who are older than 23 years old. But, I am sure, three of them, which is how many senior players could be in the application form of each national team, would definitely strengthen our national team. For example, our rival in the group, Argentina, was strengthened by three age players: Raul from Ajax, Otamendi from Benfica and Alvarez from Manchester City. All three went on to win the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

But let's return, as they say, to the field. I will remind the results of matches of our Olympians in the group. The Yellow-Blue played their first match on June 24 against the Iraqi national team, which was considered the outsider of the group. Having opened the score, our guys did not keep the advantage - as a result, the defeat with the score 1:2. With the same score, the favorite of our group, the team of Argentina, lost to the team of Morocco.

The Moroccan team became the second opponent of our Olympians in Saint-Etienne on June 27. The "yellow-blues" played confidently in the first half, opening the score in the 22nd minute. In the 64th minute, a penalty was awarded in our goal, and Saliuk received a red card, and the score became equal. Playing in the majority, the Moroccans tried to snatch victory, but soccer luck was on the side of our guys this evening. On the eighth (!) added minute of the second half the ball into the opponent's goal was scored by Krasnopyr, thus bringing the victory - 2:1. In the other match of the round, the Argentines defeated the Iraqi team - 3:1.

Before the final third round in the group there was such a situation that all teams scored three points: 1. Argentina - goal difference 4:3, 2. Ukraine - 3:3, 3. Morocco - 3:3, 4. Iraq - 3:4. The matches in Lyon (Ukraine vs. Argentina) and in Nice (Morocco vs. Iraq) started simultaneously. As a result, the Yellow-Blues lost to the South Americans (0:2), while Morocco defeated Iraq (3:0), and Argentina and Morocco made the playoffs.

However, Argentina crashed out in the quarterfinals, losing to France (0:1), and Morocco lost in the semifinals to Spain (1:2). By the way, the Pyrenees ended up winning the gold medals, defeating the hosts of the 2024 Olympics (5:3) in a spectacular final in extra time.