Despite the loss to the Belgians, Yuriy Moroz's team will continue the fight to reach the continental championship.
The Ukraine U-17 football team lost to Belgium in the final third round match of the first round of qualification for the 2025 European Championship. The match in Genk, Belgium ended with a score of 1:2.
Already in the 9th minute of the match, Rene Muteba put the Belgians ahead. At the beginning of the second half, the “blue-yellows” got even – in the 59th minute, Dmitry Zudin scored.
The denouement of the tense confrontation came in the 90th minute, when Jesse Da Silva's goal brought victory to the Belgian team.
For both teams, this match no longer had tournament significance, because they early qualified for the second round of the Euro 2025 qualifiers, having scored 6 points in the first two rounds.
Thus, Yuri Moroz's team took second place in the group with 6 points and will continue the fight to qualify for Euro 2025. The Belgian team with 9 points became the winner of the quartet, where Kosovo and Kazakhstan also competed, having scored one point each.
The top two teams from each group advanced to the second round of the selection. In the first two rounds, the Ukrainian U-17 team made a comeback and defeated Kosovo (4:2), after which they won a crushing victory over Kazakhstan (3:0).
The second round of the continental championship selection will start in the spring of 2025. It will be attended by 28 teams. The winners of the seven groups will join the host Albania in the final tournament, which will take place in the summer of the same year.