Ukraine Clinch Place at Euro 2016

Ukraine earned their spot at the European Championship in the following summer. The first leg was a tie and Ukraine achieved a 2-0 victory. Boštjan Cesar gave a chance to overturn the result in favour of Slovenia, but the game on Tuesday ended 1-1. It was clear that the place at the championship is for Ukraine with 3-1 on aggregate.

Both Ukraine and Slovenia performed well and showed great composure and team play. The game was intense.

In 2012 Ukraine automatically reached the tournament. So this is their first earned qualification at European Championships’ finals. Ukraine are going to France and are hoping to perform better than they did before three years.

Slovenia had a brilliant start at the Stadion Ljudski. The captain Boštjan Cesar headed in from a close range only after the 11th minute of the game. The goalkeeper of Ukraine Andriy Pyatov could not manage to deal with the dangerous situation and Slovenia had an early advantage.

Srečko Katanec’s team was close to double the result with the fierce shot of midfielder Nejc Pecnik. However, Slovenia could not achieve in scoring a second point. They ended the match with one man less, because a red card was shown to Mišo Brečko, defender, for a foul on Konoplyanka.

Ukraine had 2 points advantaged of the first leg. They achieved a dominant precedence for the return leg on Saturday. Mykhaylo Fomenko’s team was not able to play its usual game. Slovenia were a serious threat during the return leg. They could easily overturn the result. The team was continuously pressuring and had a plenty of possession of the ball. The Slovenian footballers were trying to score a second point in order to level the aggregate, but they failed.

The Ukrainian composure and gaming became better and more marked as the time was ticking on. Andriy Yarmolenko succeeded in equalizing the game into the stoppage time. He managed to score a point. This beautiful late goal ensured the Ukrainian Euro 2016 place.

This was a great victory for the Ukrainian team and their coach Mykhaylo Fomenko, because it is their first qualification to European Championships.

Ukrainian and Slovenian team wore armbands in black and observed one minute’s silence to show their respect to France, because of the tragic events happened in Paris on the 13th of November.