Ukraine national team striker Yaremchuk won “gold” of the Greek championship: why is this bad for Ukrainian clubs?

The Greek "Olympiacos", for which Ukrainian national team forward Roman Yaremchuk plays, won the championship ahead of schedule thanks to a victory over "AEK".

However, the triumph of the Greek club deprived Ukraine of a direct place in the group stage of the Champions League, writes UNN.

Details

Yesterday, April 13, "Olympiacos" met within the framework of the 3rd round of the Champion Group against "AEK". The match ended with a minimal victory for "Olympiacos" (1:0), which allowed the team to оформити the championship ahead of schedule, and in general to win the 48th title at the national level.

Roman Yaremchuk spent one minute on the field, coming on as a substitute in the 90th minute, and managed to receive a yellow card. "Olympiacos" in the Greek championship table occupies 1st place with 66 points after 29 games. "Panathinaikos" is in second place with 56 points. By the end of the campaign, he will theoretically be able to score a maximum of 65 points.

For Yaremchuk, this is the first trophy he has won since joining the Greek team in the summer of 2024. Roman became the fourth Ukrainian to win the Greek championship.

Earlier, Dmytro Chygrynskyi won gold medals as part of AEK (2017/18), Yevhen Shakhov and Yevhen Khacheridi as part of PAOK (2018/19).

This season, the Ukrainian striker played 20 matches for Olympiacos, in which he scored 3 goals and gave one assist. Yaremchuk himself reacted to the victory on Instagram, writing that "the champion's trophy is returning home to Piraeus."

However, this trophy "hit" Ukrainian football.

The fact is that the triumph of "Olympiacos" deprived Ukraine of all theoretical chances for a direct ticket to the main round of the Champions League next season 2025/2026.

For the first time since the 2008/2009 season, no Ukrainian club is guaranteed to play in the main round of the Champions League. Until April 13, Donetsk "Shakhtar" remained the only club that had a chance to directly qualify for the general stage of the Champions League next season. In order to directly enter the general stage of the Champions League, the "miners" needed to simultaneously: 

• win the UPL;
• so that the winner of the 2024/25 Champions League season receives a ticket to the general stage of the tournament next season through the national championship;
• Shakhtar had to have the highest UEFA club rating among the champions of countries playing in the tournament qualifiers.

Since "Olympiacos" has a higher UEFA club rating than "Shakhtar", and the Greek champion does not have a direct ticket to the general stage of the Champions League next season, the Ukrainian team has lost its chances of a direct ticket next season.

Let us remind you

The Italian Serie A has announced the forward of the Ukrainian national team and Roma's Artem Dovbyk as the player of the month of the league in March. The Ukrainian has three goals in four league matches for Roma.