The fight to reach Division A of the League of Nations: the Ukrainian national team will play the return match with the Belgian team
Kyiv • UNN
On March 23, Ukraine will play the return match of the League of Nations play-offs against Belgium. Victory will open the way to Division A and improve positions in the draw for the Euro 2028 qualification.
Today, March 23, in Genk, Belgium, the Ukrainian national team will play the return match against the Belgian team in the League of Nations play-offs for the right to play in the elite Division A. UNN tells where to watch the match, with what mood the teams are approaching, who is the bookmakers' favorite.
Details
Today at 21:45 at the "Cegeka-Arena" stadium will be a match between the national teams of Belgium and Ukraine in the League of Nations play-offs. Daniel Siebert has been appointed as the main referee. His assistants will be Rafael Foltyn and Dominik Schaal, also from Germany. Pascal Müller will be the VAR referee, and Katrin Rafalski will be his assistant. The fourth referee is German Daniel Schlager.
This is not Siebert's first meeting with the Ukrainian national team - in May 2022, he officiated the match between the Ukrainian national team and Borussia Mönchengladbach. Then the Ukrainian national team won - 2:1. Siebert was also the fourth referee at the play-off match of the Euro 2024 qualification between Ukraine and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The game will be shown by Megogo, the official broadcaster of the UEFA League of Nations in Ukraine. The Royal Belgian Football Association announced that all tickets for today's match have been sold out. It should be noted that the stadium can accommodate 24,956 spectators.
Despite the victory of the Ukrainian national team in the first match - 3:1, bookmakers again give preference to the Belgian national team, on whose victory you can bet with a coefficient of - 1.5. On the victory of Ukraine - 6, and on a draw - 4.5.
The winner of the two-match confrontation will get a place in Division A of the UEFA League of Nations. The losing team will spend the next season in Division B. Reaching Division A will give Ukraine a better chance in the draw for Euro 2028.
After the first match, both right-backs of the Ukrainian national team, Oleksiy Sych and Yukhym Konoplya, were injured. The players have already left the team's location and will not help in the match.
Head coach Serhiy Rebrov said after the match that Ukraine does not have the opportunity to call up a replacement for Sych and Konoplya.
Can a flank defender be called up? We would be happy to, but now, unfortunately, we don't have such an opportunity. First of all, we cannot make documents for leaving Ukraine, and there are only two days left before the game. I believe that we will have enough players, even if we cannot use the listed players. But we hope that everything will be fine
At the press conference on the eve of the game, Rebrov considered the possibility of calling up Illya Krupskyi, who is currently abroad with the youth national team of Ukraine, but, according to him, the national team has players who have played in the position of right defender.
"Yes, this option was considered. I like this player, but I don't think he has played a single match at the level of the national team. There are players who have played in this position.
For example, Bohdan Mykhaylichenko. He played for Anderlecht in this position, he played for Polissya. Sashko Zinchenko played well in this position in the first match against Belgium. Therefore, there are options and there was no need to immediately call up a player," Rebrov said yesterday.
Today it also became known that defender Valeriy Bondar, as well as forward Artem Dovbyk, who missed the first match due to infection, have returned to the national team's roster.
Regarding Artem: yes, he will train in the general group today. Yesterday he had an individual training session, and as far as I can see, everything will be fine
Today it also became known that the Ukrainian national team will play in a yellow uniform.
On the eve of the game, Belgian midfielder Kevin de Bruyne said that it might be beneficial for his team to drop to Division B of the League of Nations.
Of course, it is better to win to gain confidence, but if it means staying in Division A and losing many matches in it, then it may be better to play in Division B. There you meet more teams of your level and can win more matches, which is also important for the ranking. After all, the more often you lose, the lower you are in the ranking, and then you may have problems at the European Championship and the World Championship. In any case, it is important to be in the first pot during the draw
The UAF emphasizes that in the last 10 home matches, Belgium has suffered only two defeats - against France (1:2) and Italy (1:0).
I am sure that everyone has a working mood, everyone understands that this was the first half and everyone is ready very seriously for tomorrow. I believe that in the first match we played very disciplined, but, unfortunately, not as aggressively as we would have liked. However, I am sure that it is very difficult to play 90 minutes at a high pace. We added in the second half and made the result. Once again: tomorrow will be a completely different game. Therefore, we are preparing for a more aggressive opponent who will play at home and will be very motivated
