Ukraine's national football team will try to win through to the 2014 World Cup finals, Ukraine manager Mykhailo Fomenko said.
“The task remains the same – qualifying from the group. It’s very difficult to resolve it now, but we have this task, and it needs to be addressed. As they say, there’s always a chance,” he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.
Fomenko said he realized that the next qualifying match on March 22 against Poland would be very important.
“If, God forbid, we lose, we will have even less chances to qualify from the group. Anyway, we will try to achieve the maximum results in all of the remaining games. Otherwise, why even bother going onto the pitch?” he said.
Fomenko also named the new coaching staff of the national team. His assistants will be Oleksandr Zavarov, who served as acting head coach of the national team at the end of 2012, former Dynamo player Volodymyr Onyschenko, and Fomenko’s longtime aide, Valeriy Dushkov. Yuriy Syvukha became the coach of the goalkeepers.
Ukraine will play two 2014 World Cup qualifiers on March 22 and 26, against Poland and Moldova respectively.
Ukraine has won only two points in its first three qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Montenegro is at the top of Group H, with ten points from four games, and England has eight points. Poland is third (five points from three games), Moldova is fourth (four points in four matches), Ukraine is fifth, with only two points, and San Marino has no points.
