The president of the Ukrainian Football Association, the country's legend, Andriy Shevchenko, shared his initial thoughts on the 2026 World Cup draw. He emphasized that for now, the main focus is not on potential opponents in the draw, but on thorough preparation for the playoff stage. The reason is simple - Ukraine has not yet qualified for the World Cup, and this is the most important issue.
"Our main task is to qualify for the World Cup through the playoffs. First of all, we need to be maximally prepared for this stage. Reviews about the group are temporarily secondary. Of course, strong teams are gathered in the draw, but our first goal is to qualify for the World Cup," Shevchenko said in an interview with "Suspilne Sport."
According to him, Ukraine is not in a hurry to consider the possibility of facing potential opponents - the Netherlands, Japan, and Tunisia. Because to reach this stage, extremely responsible and difficult matches await in the playoffs. On March 26, Sergey Rebrov's team will play against Sweden. The winner of this pair will meet the winner of the Poland - Albania match in the final playoffs. Only the winner of this stage will qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
Shevchenko noted that today football is developing at a very high pace in every corner of the world, and the concept of choosing an opponent is practically disappearing. Each team is competitive, each is able to seriously resist. Therefore, the most correct path for Ukraine is to first advance to the playoffs, and only then study the group matches and determine the strategy.
As a reminder, the draw for the final stage of the 2026 World Cup took place in Washington on December 5th. This process was a ceremony that gave Ukraine great psychological strength, but the main test - playoff games - is still ahead. Fans are eagerly awaiting the team to write a new page and achieve a great victory in these challenging circumstances.
Read “Zamin” on Telegram!
Users of Меҳмон are not allowed to comment this publication.
