Ukraine – Portugal 2:1

Venue: Olympic Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine

Referee: Anthony Taylor (ENG)

Ukraine

Home team line-up

Coach: Andriy Shevchenko

Portugal

Away team line-up

Coach: Fernando Santos

General

As a change from the previous clash of the Ukraine side, Andriy Shevchenko (as a former golden ball winner striker) decided to put Yaremchuk (22-year-old Gent striker) into the starting eleven as a number 9. Apart from this slight modification, he also refreshed the two full-backs after the game won against Lithuania. In the defence it was important as there were many Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk players in the line-up and therefore the players knew each other quite well.
In the away starting XI, Fernando Santos took out the teenager superstar, Joao Felix and had Joao Mario make his return replacing Bruno Fernandes. But – Portugal has one of the most exciting attacking line no matter who plays upfront.

Home Team Defence

After an early goal scored, the home team had to stay on the ground with both feet. They knew exactly what the Portuguese players are capable of, therefore they always had to remain solid and composed. A well-drilled defensive structure was executed which was a 4-3-3 defensive system with having the last 7 players (4-3) close to each other. They always stayed compact and tried to tighten the space after through balls. Having these full-backs in less than 30 meters from each other (in the two half-spaces), it is really hard to play the home team through with short, combination passes.

The weakness of the system was the flanks where Portugal had great dribbles like Guedes or Cristiano Ronaldo. The away team’s full backs were pushing forward joining the attacks and this also created a little bit of difficulty for the home team. The Ukrainian side’s most important principle was to cover the central areas and never let somebody in a 1v1 situation in the three central zones: left half-space, central zone and right half-space.

This situation happened straight before the second goal of the home team. Their objective was clear: cover the central areas and try to overload the ball surrounding areas. They simply let Portugal have more possession and push them backwards – but with always being ready for the counter-attacks.

Home Team Attack

The Ukrainian side started the game with such high intensity. The home supporters and the atmosphere in the stadium almost forced out this mentality. Although they tried to bring the ball out of the back, the away team started defending quite high – therefore more long balls have been executed than it was expected. With the attacking attitude and the huge boost by the home fans led to a long ball, a great through ball, a corner kick and eventually a goal for the home team by Yaremchuk.

 As it can be seen, the home side tried to build-up the attacks line-by-line, step-by-step. They tried to step back for the ball and drag the Portuguese midfield away from their defensive line. Therefore, quite big spaces were left uncovered in midfield. Once this happened, the home play-makers could release the pressure with a deep through ball.

 As mentioned, the home side tried to operate with short passes but one other phase they were superior at was the transition from defence to attack. Straight after taking the ball, they could find the right partners because of their previous defensive numerical overload, especially in central areas.
In the flank areas the number 9 and first goal-scorer, Yaremchuk tried to help out his teammates and by running towards the side lines sometimes, he made the two centre backs of Portugal (Pepe and Rúben Dias) lose focus of the far side. This exact situation happened before the second home goal when the home full back could win a 1v1 situation and drag the attention of all away players. Yarmolenko – as always – was very clever and attention to detail and made his run behind the defence from the far side. This situation and these runs happened many times during the game.

Away Team Attack

Naturally, Portugal were superior in terms of ball possession. They had the alikes of Bernardo Silva, Joao Mario and Joao Moutinho playing towards the centre of the pitch and furthermore Semedo and Guerreiro who are really good at keeping possession and playing a short-passing, combinative football style. Therefore, the away team could push the home team in the front of their own net, but they couldn’t really exploit the aerial potential of Cristiano Ronaldo’s.

 Portugal tried to create 2v1 situations with purpose on the flanks in order to have one dribbler who can pick up the ball and dribble towards the goal. As Ukraine was very compact in defence and played a very exhausting defensive game, Portugal chose to have a midfielder stepping up in the attacking line to create the numerical superiority. Of course – Cristiano Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva and Joao Felix in the second half were constantly trying to step back into space and ask for the ball, but that way they didn’t have the space and the option to turn towards goal and play a 1v1 duel against a Ukrainian defending player.

 Having stabilized the central areas in front of goal, Ukraine couldn’t pay enough attention to the spaces left in the front of them, further away from their goal. They were pushed back by the away side. As it can be seen on the picture, the deep runs from midfielders were timed a little bit late and with these delays, the away team rarely had the opportunity to play a threatening through ball. Either the ball carrier spent too much time on the ball (too many touches made by them) or the deep-running midfielder realized the situation too lately. Therefore, the possession stayed (40%-60% by the end of the game), but the players sometimes weren’t sharp enough. 1v1s and long shots were the best opportunities for Portugal.

Summary

Of course, the higher valued team was the Portuguese side before the game. Therefore, a strong motivation and a national togetherness were the motivation for the home team in Kyiv that night. This could be seen because the Ukrainian side had almost twice as many aerial duels won as the away side even though Portugal had almost 5 times the amount of shots and more ball possession.
Cristiano Ronaldo, as the biggest superstar on this game tried to carry the team on his shoulder in terms of creativity in attack but he didn’t receive the delivery he is used to and neither he was left in a 1v1 situation by the home side. All of his passes were successful and apart from this, he had 3 key passes. The alikes of Bernardo Silva and Joao Felix were covered and defended well enough during the whole game. Apart from these players, Guedes and Joao Moutinho had very bad night making almost no impact on the game.
Shevchenko did a wonderful job with his team and the unity, the passion and the well-drilled defensive and safe football won the clash of the two nations. With one match to go in the qualifying group it is now assured that Ukraine finished first with 19 points gained in 7 matches (out of the maximum of 21).