The Ukrainian national team forced its English guest to a 1-1 draw on Saturday in the fifth round of the third group competitions, as part of the qualifiers for the 2024 European Cup scheduled in Germany.
The Ukrainian national team opened the scoring through English Arsenal player Oleksandr Zinchenko, when he received a pass on a silver platter inside the area from his teammate Jochim Konoplya, and diverted it with the first touch deceptively into the net to the left of English goalkeeper Jordan Pickford (26).
The English did not calm down to return the match to square one with a torrent of successive attacks that resulted in the equalizing goal after a long through pass from Harry Kane, who recently transferred to Bayern Munich from English club Tottenham, to Manchester City defender Kyle Walker, who prepared it for himself inside the area and shot into the net (41). Scoring his first international goal.
In the second half, the performance was almost equal, with the balance tipping slightly towards the English, without any scoring efficiency.
Arsenal striker Bukayo Saka almost got the lead in the 59th minute when he shot a left ball from outside the penalty area, but it hit the crossbar. Although coach Gareth Southgate’s men sought to achieve victory in the remaining minutes, the result remained the same.
With this first draw for England after four victories, the “Three Lions” maintained the lead in Group C with 13 points, while Ukraine remained second with seven points and a game less.
Later, Italy will play in the same group, led by coach Luciano Spalletti, in his first official match with the “Azzurri”, when they visit North Macedonia in Skopje, in an opportunity to exorcise the specter of the 2022 World Cup disaster, when the latter in Palermo prevented them from qualifying for the World Cup in Qatar.
Italy shares third place with North Macedonia, after beating Malta 2-0 and losing at home to England 1-2.
