Ilya Zabarnyi: “When you see Ukrainian flags, it is very inspiring…”

On 26 March, the Tarczynski Arena Wrocław hosted a match in the final of the play-offs for EURO 2024 between the national teams of Ukraine and Iceland. Our national team managed to win this match with a score of 2:1 and qualify for the EURO Championship, which will be held in Germany this summer. Ukraine defender Ilya Zabarny shared his emotions after the match.

For the second match in a row, we’ve made it 2-1 from 0-1, how do you feel?

We’ve got used to it a bit (laughs), but we knew who we were playing against and that we shouldn’t have conceded, but in the end everything happened as we wanted, we managed to score 2 goals. In fact, we dominated strongly, I personally saw that Iceland did not want to play football, but only played to win. I want to thank all the fans for their support and faith in us. When you see Ukrainian flags, it is very inspiring.

What were your emotions after the disallowed goal?

It was very disappointing because we understand that every ball is worth its weight in gold. But we got together and rectified the situation.

Before the game, the media wrote a lot, did it put any pressure?

The media wrote a lot that we are stronger and should be able to pass easily, but we all understand what relegation matches are like, it is always very difficult.

We always win on character. Maybe we lack a little bit of stability?

We have a young team, we have quality players in all positions, and I think it will come with time. We will still be able to show our best.

Photo: Facebook.com/Ukrainian Association of Football