The national football team of Ukraine failed to make it to the next stage of the Olympic Games in Paris, losing in the match of the group stage to the team of Argentina with a score of 0:2. This defeat was the last for the Ukrainian team at the Olympics, where it is taking part in football competitions for the first time.
The goals were scored by Almada in the 47th minute and Medina in the 90th.
Before the final third round in group B, where Ukraine plays, the situation was as confusing as possible - all teams had three points each.
Group favorite Argentina lost in the first round to Morocco, and Ukraine unexpectedly lost to Iraq.
In the second round, Ukrainians and Argentines won against their rivals - Moroccans and Iraqis, respectively. Therefore, before the final round, all teams theoretically had a chance to occupy the first two positions and, accordingly, to leave the group for the playoffs.
In order to ignore the additional indicators, Ukrainian football players had to win against the national team of Argentina. Any other result called into question the further participation of the Ukrainian national team in the tournament.
The football team of Ukraine is taking part in the Olympics for the first time. She had never qualified for this tournament before.
The national team under the leadership of coach Ruslan Rotan secured participation in this year's competition in the summer of last year.
Then the national team of players under the age of 21 (U-21) at the European Championship was able to break into the top four and received the right to go to the 2024 Olympics.
According to the rules of the Olympics, the football team can include 15 players under the age of 23, as well as three football players older than this age.
Photo credit: Reuters
However, due to the busy football schedule of the 2023/24 season, Ukraine was unable to add its strongest players to its Olympic team. In particular, legionnaires from clubs of the English Premier League: Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ilya Zabarny and Mykhailo Mudryk.
Some of them openly stated that they did not have the strength and desire to go to the Olympics and planned to focus on club football, other players were not let go by the club management.
Therefore, Ukraine did not arrive at the Olympic tournament with the strongest team. According to bookmakers, the Ukrainians' chances of winning the gold medal are 18 to 1.
In the ranking of the Olympic football teams, it is in 6-7 places.
