Ivan Kalyuzhny shared his emotions after his first match for the national team.
Midfielder of the Ukrainian national team Ivan Kalyuzhnygave a comment after the match of the 3rd round of the group stage of the League of Nations of the 2024/25 season against the Georgia team.
The match in the Polish city of Poznan ended with a victory for the Ukrainians with a score of 1:0. For the 26-year-old midfielder of “Alexandria”, it was his debut for the national team.
“Dream debut? Thank you for the congratulations. Yes, it was a dream for me to play for the national team. Thanks to the coach for the trust, to the club coach who prepared me for the national team. It was a dream that came true.
Yes, the team has already congratulated me. My thoughts? To go out and play as usual. To play only to win and try to help the team get a positive result.
Currently, Georgia is the leader of our group. I think there were matches when it was difficult for their opponents. Yes, it was a difficult game, but that makes it more interesting. I hope that we followed the coach's instructions and got a positive result.
My yellow card? When a defensive midfielder gets a yellow card, it's not very good, especially at a time when it probably shouldn't have been done. I hope I won't make such a foul next time. It's a small thing, because of which you then think about how to play more carefully the whole match, so as not to get a second yellow.
The Georgian national team? Yes, we prepared for this team. They are really strong individually. Their attack group is very decent. “It was not easy to play with them,” Kalyuzhny said on MEGOGO.
It should be noted that the victory over Georgia was the first for the Ukrainians in this Nations League. Rebrov's team started the tournament with losses to Albania (1:2) and the Czech Republic (2:3).
After three rounds, the Ukrainian team is in last place in Group B1 of the Nations League, with 3 points. Georgia is leading with 6 points, ahead of the Czech Republic (6) on additional indicators. Albania (3 points) is third.
In the fourth round of the Nations League, the Ukrainian team will play the Czech Republic on October 14 in Wroclaw, and Georgia will host Albania on the same day.