Defeated by Luxembourg and calling for Shevchenko: how Ukraine's play-off rival performed in Euro 2024 qualifying

Ukraine's national football team will play Bosnia and Herzegovina in the semifinals of the 2024 European Championship playoffs in Germany. The meeting will take place in Zenica on Thursday, March 21, and will be the third in history after the teams' matches in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers (1:1 and 2:0 in favor of the Blue and Yellows).

The Bosnians were in the Euro 2024 qualifying group J, where their rivals were Portugal, Slovakia, Iceland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. The Balkans started the qualifiers brilliantly, defeating the Icelanders 3-0, but then they suffered a huge failure.

Ukraine's future rivals managed to beat only Liechtenstein (twice), losing the rest of the matches. During the selection process, the Bosnians were led by three coaches at once: Faruk Hadžibegić, Meho Kodro, and Savo Milošević. The latter took over the national team at the end of September and managed to suffer the biggest home defeat in its history (0:5 against Portugal) and lose to Luxembourg 1:4.

As a result, Bosnia and Herzegovina took the penultimate place in the group with nine points and a goal difference of 9:20, and qualified for the playoffs thanks to its successful performance in the Nations League. Interestingly, half of the participants in group J will play in the Euro qualifiers: in addition to the Balkans, Iceland and Luxembourg will also compete for the right to play in the championship.

The main star of the Bosnians is 37-year-old Fenerbahce striker Edin Džeko. He is a fan of Andrii Shevchenko, who was wooed for the Balkan national team's coaching job and also opposed the friendly match with Russia that was scheduled to take place last fall.

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