The journey to Wembley for Ukraine’s Euro qualifier against England has been anything but smooth sailing. Due to the war and subsequent closure of Ukrainian airspace, the team has had to incorporate trains and buses into their travel plans. One group of players and medical staff endured an 11 hour and 45 minute train journey from Kyiv to Przemysl in Poland, followed by a 50-mile, two-hour bus trek to Rzeszow in south-eastern Poland. Then came a 2 hour and 9 minute Ryanair flight to London’s Stansted Airport before another 70-mile, 90-minute bus ride to the team’s Syon Park Hilton hotel. Another group of players and coaching staff left Lviv on a five-hour train journey before meeting up with the first batch at Rzeszow, while the team’s kit men had left Kyiv last Saturday.
Ukraine does not have a home ground to play in and must rent stadiums across neighbouring borders to host “home” qualifiers, while away games such as this one are a logistical nightmare. The squad has been training at Brentford’s base in London since Monday in order to ease the travelling burden on players already stretched by their club schedules.
Interim boss Roslan Rotan faces huge challenges in selecting a squad, as he also looks after the Under-21s and is manager of Oleksandriya, currently fifth in the Ukrainian Premier League. His three jobs and logistical chaos mean he cannot travel abroad to watch Ukrainians such as Arsenal’s Oleksandr Zinchenko and Chelsea’s Mykhailo Mudryk. Ukrainian domestic games are often played in front of empty stands and interrupted by air-raid sirens. Last August, a game between Rukh and Metalist in Lviv lasted four-and-a-half hours as three sirens went off during the game, forcing players into a bunker.
Despite the challenges facing the team, Rotan insists that they are dwarfed by their “defenders and warriors” facing Russian invaders on the front line. The war has had a significant impact on Ukrainian football, with Shakhtar Donetsk having to travel 18 hours to Kryvyi Rih for a league game against Kryvbas KR just three days after playing the “home” leg of their Europa League last-16 tie with Feyenoord in Poland this month. They then made another 18-hour journey for the away leg four days later, which ended in a record 7-1 defeat.
The journey to Wembley may have been a nightmare for Ukraine, but they are determined to put up a fight against England. Arsenal’s Oleksandr Zinchenko and Chelsea’s Mykhailo Mudryk could both feature in the Ukraine XI, and the team is hoping to cause an upset against the Three Lions.