On a visit to a difficult team of Italy: the Ukrainian national team will play a difficult match today

For the “blue-yellow” team, the Italian national team became a difficult opponent, because out of 8 meetings, they ended in a draw only twice, and the rest – defeats, writes the website Novosti sporta.

Frame from the preliminary game between the teams of Ukraine and Italy, which took place on October 10, 2018 in Genoa. The photo shows: Roman Yaremchuk (No. 18), Nikita Burda (No. 5) and Giorgio Chiellini (No. 3). Source: zbirna.com

The first meeting between the teams of Ukraine and Italy took place on March 29, 1995 in Kyiv. Then, as part of the qualification for Euro-1996, Ukraine lost to the Italians 0:2. Lombardo and Zola scored two goals for the Italian team, which was then led by Arrigo Sacchi. The rematch took place on November 11, 1995 in Bari and ended with a score of 1:3 in favor of Italy. An interesting moment was that the Ukrainians opened the score thanks to Polunin, but then Ravanella scored two goals, and the team’s success was secured by Maldyna.

After that, we had to wait almost 11 years for the next meeting. In 2006, under the leadership of Oleg Blokhin, Ukraine played a draw against the Italian team led by Marcello Lippa on June 2 in Lausanne (0:0). But on June 30, in the quarterfinals of the World Championship in Hamburg, the Ukrainians lost to the Italians with a score of 3:0. Dzambrotta opened the score, and then Tony scored two goals against Shovkovsky.

On October 7, 2006, Rome hosted a large-scale match between the teams of Ukraine and Italy. 60,000 fans gathered at the stadium to see one of the teams competing as part of the Euro-2008 selection. If the coach of Ukraine was known – Oleh Blokhin, then Italy was represented by the new head coach – Roberto Donadona. The result was in favor of Squadra Azzurra: 2:0. Both goals were scored in a short period of time. Oddo scored from the penalty spot, after which Tony added another. In the return match in Kyiv on September 12, 2007, Di Natale scored twice against the Ukrainians, but Shevchenko managed to score a prestigious goal.

On March 29, 2011, Kyiv became the arena for a friendly game between these teams. Yury Kalitvyntsev led the Ukrainian team, and Cesare Prandella led the Italians. Two Ukrainians, Fedetskyi and Oschypko, represented the Karpaty club. The Italians were stronger again thanks to the goals of Rossa and Matra, the score was 2:0. Seven years later, on October 10, 2018, the teams met again in Genoa. The game ended with a score of 1:1 under the leadership of Andrey Shevchenko and Roberto Mancina. After Bernardeschi led the home team ahead, Malinovsky equalized. During the entire history of the opposition, the Ukrainians scored 3 goals against the Italians, and received 15 in response.

On the occasion of the new game between the teams in Milan, defender Mykola Matviyenko can play his 60th match for the national team of Ukraine. And the Ukrainian national team has a chance to play its 50th drawn match in major tournaments: at the European and World Championships and in the League of Nations.

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