Which means we’re done and done here. Thanks all for your company and comments; you’re probably there already, but if not, please do join Rob Smyth for Belgium v Slovakia. Otherwise, though, peace out.
Here’s Nick Ames’ match report.
Rebrov says they’ll analyse the game, he’s sure they made some mistakes – you reckon? – and there are still two to go. Ukraine are playing teams with top players so they need to show their best, so must recover given what’s coming is “more serious than today”.
On BBC, Danny Murphy is saying Dragusin shouldn’t have celebrated his blocks as he did. Thing is, football isn’t played in isolation and if we believe things work, they can work. So by going wild after a challenge, he got the crowd going, his teammates going, and the team spirit going. Even if you think it’s silly, it makes a difference.
“Regarding Sancho,” begins David Howell, “I still wonder about the sliding-doors moment where he responds to the aftermath of the Euro 2020 (sic) final and goes ‘Sod this, I’m staying at BVB.’ Both clubs must wish this did in fact come to pass now...”
No doubt. He’s a lovely footballer, but a lack of intensity and physicality make it really hard for him; if he had one or the other, he could be very special.
Anitdontstop!
I also think what we’re seeing here is something international football gives us that club football can’t. The sense of an entire nation watching, pulling in the same direction, is different, and as the Romania players commune with their fans, someone gives Ianis Hagi a megaphone and he leads a chant that ends with leaping and bouncing. This is what it’s all about people: this kind of release, joy and love. Everyone involved will cherish this till the day they die.
I know I’m old, but the sight of players celebrating with fans and families absolute kills me every time. Imagine the joy after all that sacrifice, all the time wondering what might happen, fearing the worst. Brilliant.
FULL TIME: Romania 3-0 Ukraine
What a win and what a performance from Romania; the confidence they’ll take from this makes them a threat going forward too. Ukraine, on the other hand, have had an absolute mare, let down by their keeper but also unable to create. They’re not out yet, but they’re not far off it.
90+4 min What’s mad abot this is that I doubt anyone in Romania thought their team capable of a performance like this. It goes to show, I think, what you can achieve if you get a group all wired with the same aim. Meantime, Mudryk shoots from distance and Nita allows it to bounce, blocking it with body and arm; in the circumstances, it’s enough.
90+2 min Ball over the top and Yaremchuk pursues it, leaping while facing away from goal to hook a lob … that clips the top of the bar and falls behind! That’s a great effort, for all the difference it makes.
90 min We’ll have four added minutes. After which, I presume, my internet will immediately start working properly again.
89 min Ukraine win a corner down the right, it’s swerved in, and Puscas wins first contact at the near post … sending the ball narrowly wide of his own far post. The follow-up delivery, though, is poor, and Romania avert the danger. I cannot overstate the aggression and intensity of their performance today, especially since taking the lead; i wish every football team played like this, all the time.
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88 min Ukraine’s problem now is the scale of this defeat. Assuming for a second that Belgium beat everyone, it might be possible to progress with three points, but it won’t be at all easy so to do having lost 3-0 – unless there’s a big win to redeem it.
86 min Change for Romania: Stanciu, scorer of the sensational goal that changed everything, departs, taking his time to enjoy a moment the like of which he may never again experience; it’s moving to watch. He’s replaced by Racovitan.
83 min “Further to Simon McMahon’s question about James McFadden,” says Stephen McCrossan, “I think he’s been refreshingly reluctant, unlike certain others, to drivel on for the sake of it. I know many people south of the border seem to really rate Ally McCoist but, in the name of God, he needs to learn to shut up occasionally. To my mind, the best co-commentator so far has been Andros Townsend.”
What you get with Coisty, I think, is likability and enthusiasm – thing which should be givens but aren’t. I agree that Townsend is really good though – and, of the other relative newbies, Daniel Sturridge and Ashley Cole are too.
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83 min Change for Ukraine, Malinovskyi pausing his study of the Argonauts of the Western Pacific to replace Sudakov.
80 min “Based on handy Google definitions,” writes Thomas Jaggers, “I would go with rabid, meaning having or proceeding from an extreme or fanatical support of or belief in something - i.e. that they are going to WIN! Versus feral meaning being in a wild state, especially after escape from captivity or domestication. Although from the sound of the chest-bumping I can see that feral also applies!”
There we go: veral and fapid.
78 min Marin R tussles with Mudryk, the pair pulling at each other. But because it’s Mudryk who goes down and Marin who tugs last, it’s the former who get the free-kick and the latter who gets booked. As befits his and his team’s performance, he’s not at all happy with it, his mates having to pull him away from the ref, and this really is an effort of rare intensity from Romania.
77 min Romania are absolutely loving this.
75 min “Zidane won with pretty much every team he played for,” says Thomas Yelland, “made those teams vastly better. Unlike the some of the other names foisted around, he would get involved in the less glamourous aspects of the game. And unlike certain more recent contenders, it didn’t feel like the things he did were anything but in service of the game – the footwork, flicks and passed all he purpose, rather than showboating or beefing up his stats.”
I like showboating, but otherwise, Zidane was a Bordeaux till 24 and not that good at Madrid – they might have been better to just keep Makelele. Of course he was brilliant, just that I’d have him a long, long way below Maradona, Messi and both Ronaldos.
73 min Ukraine are searching and when Sudakov evades a pair of challenges, he spreads wide to Yarmolenko, who crosses low … then in slides Dragusin, sticking the ball behind prior to bro-chesting various teammates. I said earlier that Romania are rabid for this, and I’m not sure if feral is a level above or below that, but what the former is, they are.
72 min Another change for Ukraine: Konoplya is taken off, perhaps before he’s sent off, with Tymchyk replacing him.
71 min This time, Mudryk’s delivery isn’t bad, but it misses everything and Dragusin charges forward, eventually wearing the inevitable trip.
71 min Er, not much, his kick flicking the wall and flying behind for another corner to waste.
70 min Ukraine win another free-kick, this time 25 yards out and left of centre. Their set-pieces have been very poor today, but what can Sudakov conjure here?
68 min Konoplya pulls down Miahila and is booked. Free-kick Romania. out on the left; someone, Stanciu I think, whips it into the near side-netting.
66 min The thing about Ukraine is that they’ve struggled to create then, when they went behind, the Romania players found a way to harness the brilliance of the goal, set about them with bad intentions, and it’s been one-way traffic ever since.
65 min Ukraine win a free-kick 30 yards out, left of centre, and Mudryk curls towards the far post; it’s headed clear and, from the edge, Yarmolenko larrups a snap-shot over the bar.
62 min And now Ukraine send on Brazhko, Yarmolenko and Yaremchuk for Stepanenko, Tsygankov and Sharapenko.
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62 min Ch ch ch changes: Romania send on Hagi and Mihaila for Man and Coman.
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60 min I’m not sure what Ukraine do here. They desperately need to find some confidence before their next game against Slovakia, but they also need this not to get worse.
58 min What a moment! Romania haven’t played a tournament since 016, have won only one game in the entire history of the Euros … and they’re taking Ukraine to Sketchley! But wait … was Dragus offside? No he was not, and it’s a goal!
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GOAL! Romania 3-0 Ukraine (Dragus 57)
The corner goes short from Stanciu to Man, who sways inside then outside, totally foxing Sharapenko who’ll need to pay to get back in, and when he drills square, Dragus taps home from close range! Mayham in the Romania end, and game over!
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56 min Romania really buzzing! Stanciu has a shot blocked, they work it to Ratiu, and his fierce near post shot is turned behind by Lunin; cheers for coming old mate.
54 min Romania are buzzing!
GOAL! Romania 2-0 Ukraine (Marin R 53)
Oh Andriy. Oh Andriy. Romania break well, Dragus powering through midfield. Then, when the ball goes right, it comers back inside, Man overrunning it and and Sharapenko sliding in, it breaks to Marin who clobbers first-time and early. But even so, Lunin – not helped by Zabarnyi waving a leg at it in front of him – allows the shot under his dive. He is having an absolute karius here, but Romania are in dreamland! Their end is wild and I wish I was in it.
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51 min Romania are back on top, feeding Man down the right; his cross wins a throw, then Stanciu’s footwork sustains the attack only for Sudakov to bring Ukraine away. But he pauses for a crucial split-second when Dovbyk makes a run outside him, the option vanishes, and various checks and feints yield nothing further.
49 min Ukraine knock it about, the crowd booing as there’s a Romanian player down; it’s Dragus, who takes a bang off Stepanenko, nothing major. But the way his teammates pursue the ref when the ball goes dead tells us that they are rabid for this game and rightly so.
47 min “I totally agree with your point, footballers are people and their circumstances sometimes don’t gel with a club or area,” returns Ben Monroe-Lake. “My chagrin is more reserved for these superclubs who tend to refine the process of club/player mismatch to a fine art as a result of their huge recruitment numbers and lack of forethought.
Take Sancho (I’m sorry United fans, I’m not trying to have a go) but why did United buy him? There was obviously no plan, he was just a name and that was enough and it tanked his career.
Obviously, he has bounced back, which is great but there will be some who never can, sometimes for reasons outside of their control or because they don’t have a support network to help them cope with the bad times. This will happen anyway, it just feels to me like the circumstances for it to happen are amplified by certain clubs and it can often be traced back who and how they are investing.
Anyway, this is all a massive tangent, I can’t watch the match so appreciate the hard work you min-by-mins undertake to keep me in the know.”
Yes, I agree – Sancho isn’t, I don’t think, suited to the Prem and perhaps not to United. I’d not say there’d been no thought as to what he might do, rather the quality of that thinking was poor.
46 min Nice from Stanciu, who shifts it and tries an inswinger this time, the ball missing the far post by a fair way.
46 min We go again!
Half-time email: “The brilliant Paul Doyle, formerly of the Guardian, once compared Lionel Messi to a hot house flower,” recalls Kári Tulinius. “To fully bloom he needed the right conditions. I’ve often thought about that when players like Mudryk, who I’ve seen play brilliantly, fail to prosper in a side. The opposite, to steal a metaphor from Tupac, is the rose growing from concrete. That always makes me think of Zidane, who could start a ballet at a bar fight.”
Ha! I’m going to get pelters for saying this, but aesthetic though he was and despite his various goals at crucial moments, i can never quite understand the company he’s put in when categorising players. He is, in my opinion, miles and miles away from best of my lifetime and below a fair few who never make it into the kind of conversations I’m referencing.
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HALF-TIME: Romania 1-0 Ukraine
Another really fun half and the underdogs lead, a fantastic goal inspiring Romania to dominate. Ukraine have the better players and that’s still evident, but they’ve created almost nothing. Work for Rebrov to do.
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45 min We’ll have two additional minutes. Ukraine are missing oor Zinchenkz in midfield, and I’d be trying to find a left-back solution to address that were I Sergiy Rebrov (again, I’m not).
45 min “How’s McFadden doing?” wonders Simon McMahon. “He often does co-commentary on Scottish football for the BBC, so this game will be like watching Argentina v France in the World Cup final for him.”
He’s doing OK. There was one strange moment when a Ukraine game at Hampden was mentioned and he said he was there that day, so Steve Wilson waited for the “and”. Except there wasn’t one, he just wanted us to know the simple fact of things.
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42 min Doybyk reaches a pass into the box before Burca, takes a touch that takes him away and tries to go on the outside. Burca, though, responds well enough, the ball running behind, and in the rush to bro-chest his teammate, Dragusin almost piles through the striker. Then Ratiu appears to get in on the action and that is worrying for Ukraine: Romania have something to hold on to and are playing with rare moxie and aggression.
39 min If I’m Stanciu – for avoidance of doubt, I’m not – I’m sticking this on top of Lunin, and that’s exactly what he does. But rather than seek a friendly head, he actually goes for goal and the keeper, backpeddling furiously, terrified, swipes and misses everything. He’s lucky to get away with that, and Romania, on a buzz after scoring so brilliantly, should be testing him at every opportunity.
38 min Our tempo is back! Romania boust down the other end and Man cuts in off the right, trying a curler that flicks the knee off Marin M and flies a foot or so wide of the far post.
36 min Ukraine get Mudryk away down the left and he goes on the outside, crossing well; Dragusin, under pressure and having misjudged the flight of the ball, has to send it behind via diving header and topknot combo. Again, the corner is poor but when Ukraine recycle possession, they pick out Mudryk at the back post and he lashes a volley that shoots off square, hitting Stepanenko, and Romania get it away.
35 min I’ve not seen every minute of every game, but Romania look to have the best end we’ve seen so far. They are loving this.
32 min “I’ve found the travails of Mudryk intensely fascinating, emails Ben Monroe-Lake. “As an Arsenal fan, there was a point where it seemed nailed on he was coming to our club. He was hoisting his social media skirt and dropping hints out of his garter and all the trusted rumour mongers suggested he was close to inking a deal. We all know what happened afterwards.
I’m not going to question the Mudryk’s decision-making process. He’s young and his club were in unique circumstances and needed to raise as much money as they could.
I do think it’s a great insight in to how raw talent is simply not all there is to it. As you said, Arteta has an eye for a player, so we can assume there is something there and Mudryk is not the only player to falter under Boehly’s clown-car method of player recruitment.
Yet certain clubs can be essentially ruinous for some players. Manchester United were this for a while. Many players, who have gone on to have fine careers, struggled massively there. Di Maria and Depay for example. Chelsea are also hugely guilty of this, buying large amounts of players and essentially losing a few down the back of the couch.
It’s painful to see so many promising careers so badly bungled by top level management.”
I know what you mean, but also think there’s more to it that. to take your examples, Di Maria never wanted to be at United and Depay wasn’t good enough, which isn’t to deny the total shambles they found when they arrived, rather that few many players can be brilliant everywhere – rather they need circumstances that suit – and also, football is simple but people are complex.
30 min Lunin will be feeling exceptionally poorly. It wasn’t as good clearance, but he’ll never have anticipated what came next, the proportionality of punishment not dissimilar to that famous time I curled home a perfect free-kick around my bed, and through my bedroom window from the inside, to then be banned from watching Man United v Oldham in the FA Cup semi.
OH MY DAYS WHAT A GOAL! Romania 1-0 Ukraine (Stanciu 29)
Lunin, so solid for Madrid, clips a clearance – having been sold a little short – to Marin R. He squares for Stanciu who, from 22 yards, unfurls an outswinger that shrieks, hisses and burns into the top corner!
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27 min Ratiu misjudges a ball over his head – not something you want to do when that head is avatar blue – but does well to turn and clear before Mudryk can pounce, which makes it sound like he had more tie than he did. Romania then counter and for a second look to have caught Ukraine short-handed, but Matviyenko concedes a corner which again is very poor.
25 min While we were bringing about world peace below, I should note that Ukraine won – and then wasted – another corner. After a promising start, this is now not so good.
23 min “Given the unspoken laws of football that every changing room seems to follow,” writes Gregory Phillipos, “wouldn’t his nickname be Zinchenkz-y?”
I feel we may have moved on from the obligatory y-suffix – Welbz, Tsygankovz and so on – but I’m never shy of a contraction that’s in fact an expansion. In my youth I knew a lad whose surname was Hyams, leading to his being known as “Hyamzy”, which I still enjoy to this day.
22 min A poor corner is easily cleared but Dovbyk picks up possession on the edge, thwacking over the bar with Mudryk keen for a pass.
21 min Konoplya is looking to get forward whenever possible and here he is advancing now, swiping over a long cross that’s … nowhere near Dovbyk. But he gets another go shortly afterwards, swinging a ball into the corridor that forces Buerca to shank behind, Dovbyk menacing behind him.
19 min “Regarding your post on what to call Ukraine’s lovely blue kit,” begins Asa Desouza-Jones, “I would go with ‘Not a cloud in the sky, blue’. There’s a sad irony to that given the horrible situation their country has been in but as the great Arsène Wenger used to say (and I’m paraphrasing here) ‘I take pride in the fact that for 90 minutes people could say, life is beautiful. Here’s hoping they enjoy their tournament and give a bit of joy to their country-people.’”
18 min I’m not yet clear on how Romania plan to score. They’re getting it forward quickly, but they’re not offering enough support to whoever the passes are seeking, meaning they’re constantly crowded out.
16 min Still Ukraine knock it about – so far to little avail.
14 min Ratiu, the Romania right-back, has blue hair, which of course puts in mind Phyllis Pearce, but also the side who all died their hair blonde at France 98. Thank goodness there were no MBMs then is all I can say.
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12 min A throw deep inside the Romania half finds Dovbyk, who turns with the flight of the ball, moving away from his marker. But Dragusin is there right away to block his shot at source.
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10 min Serhiy Rebrov’s men continue to probe, looking for angles. But with Zinchenko – whose dressing-room nickname is, I trust, Zinchenkz – not yet inverting, they’re missing a bit of composure and quality in there.
8 min Dragusin looks to hump clear and gets much more knee than ball, catching Zabarnyi a sair yin. I don’t think there’s anything untoward going on, he just misses most of the ball, so VAR doesn’t have a look.
7 min And, as I type, they play into Dovbyk, back to goal, and he tees-up Tsygankov on the edge; Dragusin blocks at source.
6 min Shaparenko plays a nice ball into midfield for Konoplya and takes it back, but when he goes left he can’t quite find Mudryk. I do, though, think we’re settling into a pattern, Ukraine controlling possession and Romania looking to spring.
5 min Like yesterday’s Poland v Netherlands game, both teams are looking to attack; there’s a good tempo about this, though not much quality yet.
4 min Now it’s Romania who go over the top with Stanciu, but the ball skips off the turf and races through to Lunin.
3 min A ball over the top sees Dovbyk in behind Dragusin, but as it falls from the sky he can’t quite lower it on his foot and it runs away from him.
2 min I do like the shade of blue Ukraine are in; what are we calling it? Powder blue?
1 min Romania tear into this, pressing from the front, and Ukraine use that aggression against them, countering and finding Mudryk, who carves across the face of the box but can’t quite find a shooting lane or pass.
1 min And way we go!
James McFadden is not a name I’ve heard recently, but he’s on co-comms. I’d love to see how the appointment process works.
And the Romania players and fans rise to the challenge, thundering out their underrated banger.If they take this attitude into the game, we’re set for a proper afternoon.
The Ukraine players are wearing national flags draped over their shoulders; there’s a bit of intensity about how they’re singing their anthem.
Oh, and here come our teams!
So where is the game? Romania will, I imagine, sit deep and look to supply Denis Dragus with crosses and balls in behind while fighting for everything. Ukraine, on the other hand, will pass through midfield but also look to get their wide players one-on-one with the opposing full-backs, while Sudakov looks to slip balls down the sides and into the box with Dovbyk playing on Burca, not Dragusin, if he possibly can.
I analysed England’s win last night.
I’m looking forward to watching Thomas Frank – in the BBC studio this afternoon – as a pundit. I really enjoy his attitude and aggression, and he’s also someone i’d go out of my way to hear talking football.
Mykhailo Mudryk, then. It’s easy to forget it wasn’t just Todd Boehly legendary nose for a player that sniffed him out; Mikel Arteta was also keen, so we can probably conclude he can play. The question, then, is how to get him playing at his best, and a team likely to sit back and counter might just help with that. Whatever people think of him as a player, no one can question the ludicrousness of his pace, and I’d not be shocked if it were to prove effective during this competition.
Email! “Romania must be pretty handy if they can afford to leave Puscas and Hagi on the bench…” chuckles Julian Menz.
And don’t forget Olaru – he’s an absolute rock.
Domenico Tedesco, meanwhile, could easily be talking about me (save the “young” and “very talented” bits).
“Two former England players with me, Conor Coady and Micah Richards…” I shouldn’t snigger, but I did.
Great news dept:
I’m really looking forward to seeing how Georgiy Sudakov does. The 21-year-old number 10 established himself in the side during the qualifying campaign and, if we’re being honest, is probably playing for a move. And I’m also keen to see how Artem Dovbyk, winner of last season’s Pichichi, goes; he should have a lot of fun given the man behind him, but also given the pace of Mykhailo Mudryk and Viktor Tsygankov outside him.
Ukraine also make one change from the team given in our – Oleksandr Sazhko and Oleksandr Sereda’s – guide: Vitaliy Mykolenko is injured, so Oleks Zinchenko moves from midfield to left-back with Mykola Shaparenko taking his place in the centre.
Romania are pretty much as expected; the only alteration to the team given by Emanuel Rosu in our team guide is in the middle of defence, where it’s Andrei Burcă alongside Tottenham’s Radu Dragusin.
Right, I shall write those down, then we’ll have a think about what they mean.
Teams!
Romania (4-1-4-1): Nita; Ratiu, Dragusin, Burca, Bancu; Marin M; Man, Marin R, Stanciu, Coman; Dragus. Subs: Moldovan, Tarnovanu, Rus, Nedelcearu, Alibec, Cicaldau, Puscas, Hagi, Mihaila, Olaru, Mogos, Sorescu, Racovitan, Birliga, sut.
Ukraine (4-2-3-1): Lunin; Konoplya, Zabarnyi, Matviyenko, Zinchenko; Stepanenko, Shaparenko; Tsygankov, Sudakov, Mudry; Dovbyk. Subs: Buschchan, Trubin, Svatok, Talovierov, Sydorchuk, Yarmolenko, Malinovskyi, Yaremchuk, Mykolenko, Brazhko, Zubkov, Bondar, Tymchyk, Vanat, Mykhailichenko.
Referee: Glenn Nyberg (Sweden)
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Preamble
One of the joys of tournament football is that it gives us an excuse to spend all day every day talking football. Yes, and one of the punishments of tournament football is that it gives other people an excuse to spend all day every talking football too, but still.
Sometimes, though, we find ourselves in a situation – such as this one – in which talking football feels gauche … yet it is incumbent upon us do so with even greater alacrity than before. Because though Ukraine are defending themselves against Vladimir Putin’s expansionist war, and though their miraculous presence at this competition is part of that story, their team is a football team, their players are football players and their football team will contain football players playing football; as such, we owe it to them to focus on them – without ignoring the stuff that’s outside of their control.
And Ukraine are a decent outfit too. Goalie Andriy Lunin did well when called upon by Real Madrid in last seasons’ run-in; defender Illia Zabarnyi has excelled at Bournemouth; Oleks Zinchenko is extremely well-suited to the less physical nature of the international game; and Mykhalo Mudryk reeks of the domestic irrelevance, tournament excellence cycle we see at such time. Then if to that you add Everton’s Vitaliy Mykolenko and Valencia’s Roman Yaremchuk, plus Girona’s Artem Dovbyk and Viktor Tsyhankov, you have a side well-placed to benefit from a very friendly draw.
Which brings us to Romania, a nails but prosaic squad who reached Germany by besting perennial qualifiers Switzerland in Group I – a fine effort, but one expected to end there. Until – like Ukraine, and Slovakia – they saw their opponents and thought right, we’ll have some of that.
And so, given this is the first working-day football of the competition, will we – even if it means acquainting ourselves with the thoughts of others.
Kick-off: 3pm local, 2pm BST
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