European Golden League-2023. Group stage. Group B
6th round Skopje, North Macedonia (Sport Cenert Boris Traijkovski)
June 18, Sunday
North Macedonia - Ukraine - 0:3 (18:25, 24:26, 23:25)
The starting line-up of the National team of Ukraine: Tupchii (scored 6 points), Shchytkov (1), Semeniuk (7), Teromenko (4), Kovalov (2), Plotnytskyi (14), Kanaiev (l), Boiko (l). Substitutes: Poluian (8), Synytsia (0), Shchurov (2), Kucher (4), Kisiliuk (6).
The starting set began with a struggle, but very quickly came under the control of the "blue-yellows". They felt quite confident and relaxed on someone else's court. Firstly, this match had no tournament significance, secondly, the small support group in Skopje made itself quite loud and visible, and thirdly, the level of the National team of Ukraine was still higher than the level of the Macedonians. 25:18 and 1:0 in favor of Ukraine.
In the second set, there were some changes in the composition of the Ukrainian team - Yurii Synytsya appeared instead of Vitalii Shchytkov, Tymofii Poluian replaced Illia Kovalov, and Dmytro Teromenko was replaced by Vladyslav Shchurov - young middle blocker. The opponent was seriously determined to correct the mistakes of the previous set, instead, the Ukrainians began to make unforced errors, which Uģis Krastiņš himself noted in the time-out (4:8 - 7:13 - 14:20). It seemed that this set would be in favor of the hosts of the court. But... our "Cossacks" have a fighting character and the talent to turn the tide of any match. And this time, they demonstrated, without exaggeration, a master class of "how to win a set while losing in 6 points." The great team play and a series of aces by Vasyl Tupchii, Vitalii Shchytkov and Oleh Plotnytskyi – 26:24 and 2:0 to the delight of Ukrainian fans.
In the third set, we saw changes in the composition of our team again: Yevhenii Kisiliuk replaced Vasyl Tupchii in the opposite role, and Vitalii Kucher appeared on the court instead of Oleh Plotnytskyi, the captain. These changes were not reflected in the course of this meeting (12:8 - 17:15). The Macedonian volleyball players tried to save this set and please their fans in the stands at least a little, however, the desire of the Ukrainians not to lose a single set was much stronger - 25:23 and 3:0 as a result.
Captain Oleh Plotnytskyi was the most effective member of the "blue-yellow" team today. He scored 14 points.
As a result, the men's national team of Ukraine completed the group round of the European Golden League 2023 with the maximum possible result - 6 "easy" victories and 18 points!
In the semi-finals of the tournament, the team of Uģis Krastiņš will play against the hosts of the "Final Four", the national team of Croatia. In the second match, Turkey and the Czech Republic will fight for a place in the finals.
The matches of the final round will take place on June 24-26, 2023 in the Croatian city of Zadar. The exact time of the games will be known a little later.
Watch online broadcasts of all matches involving the men's and women's national teams of Ukraine on the YouTube channel DIVISPORT.
