The women's national team of Ukraine will start in the European Golden League. On May 27-28, the blue-yellow team will meet with Hungary. Both matches will be held in Budapest at ÉRD Aréna. Start is at 20:00 and 18:30 respectively.
The teams have met each other four times in recent history, with all matches taking place last year. Fate brought them together in the qualification of the European Championship-2023 and again at the first stage of the European Golden League-2022.
Ivan Petkov's players beat their opponents twice in the qualification for European Championship (3-2 and 3-0). Although, as you know, both national teams made it to the main draw then.
Meanwhile, in the European Golden League, the opponents exchanged victories (3-1 and 2-3). This failure in the tie-break cost the Ukrainians a place in the semi-finals. By the way, after that, our national team has not yet felt the bitterness of defeat.
Let's add that since March of this year, the Hungarian team was led by Italian coach Alessandro Chiappini. Before that, the specialist worked in the championship of Poland (LKS Lodz, Legionowo, Pila, Proxima Krakow, Trefl Sopot), Italy (Conegliano, Novara, Piacenza), Azerbaijan ("Azerrail"), and also coached the national women's teams of Slovenia and Turkey.
The previous meetings:
European Golden League-2022
Ukraine — Hungary 3-1 (25:27, 25:17, 25:18, 25:19)
Hungary — Ukraine 3-2 (25:17, 12:25, 20:25, 25:20, 16:14)
Qualification for Euro-2023
Hungary — Ukraine 2-3 (25:23, 16:25, 16:25, 28:26, 12:15)
Ukraine — Hungary 3-0 (25:16, 25:15, 25:16)
Ranking of teams:
The national team of Ukraine is in the 13th place in the European rating, and the team of Hungary is in the 22nd position.
In the world list, the blue-yellows occupy the 24th place, and our closest opponents - 38.
Competition format
There are three groups at this stage: A (Belgium, Sweden, Bosnia, and Herzegovina), B (Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia), and, actually, C (France, Hungary, Ukraine). Their winners and the team with the best results among the second positions will advance to the semifinals.
Schedule of games of the national team of Ukraine in the group stage:
Watch online video broadcasts of the matches on the Divisport Volleyball YouTube channel.