Idman.biz
The head coach of the Ukrainian national team, Serhiy Rebrov, shared his thoughts after the 1:3 defeat to Sweden in the semi-final of the 2026 World Cup play-off.
İdman.Biz reports that Serhiy Rebrov's statement was published on the official UEFA website.
Serhiy Rebrov said that the Ukrainian national team could have changed the course of the game.
"I gave the players instructions, we made changes... I think the players on the field also reacted to it - in the second half they tried to create more episodes, put more pressure on the penalty area. We tried to do this, but the Swedish national team played with three central defenders today. It is always very difficult to break such a defense. They defended very tightly, and this created a great difficulty for our players.
Viktor Gyokeres showed why he plays for Arsenal and why he is considered one of the best strikers. In such games, if you want to win in the play-off stage, you have to give your maximum. I don't want to single out anyone, but as a team we couldn't show our maximum and that's why we lost. As for the beginning of the game, these were just unfortunate mistakes. This was evident even in the first goal. In the first goal, we made tactical mistakes - we did not react to the back pass in our penalty area. In the second goal, you saw everything yourself. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to compete at this level with teams that have such players playing in top leagues," said Rebrov.
The Swedish national team advanced to the final stage of the play-offs and will face Poland.
