If there is a guilty that Ukraine is in the quarterfinals of the Euro is your technician, Andriy Shevchenko. The legend of the striker who won the Champions League and the Ballon d'Or with Milan he has grown in his first adventure as a coach. And he has done it neither more nor less than with the national team, a major challenge that only someone like him could face.
Sheva took over the national team in 2016, after the federation decided to dispense with Fomenko after the poor group stage of the European Championship in France. Despite his youth (he was then 39 years old), it was thought that it was the most indicated to revive a Ukrainian generation that had not finished taking off. In addition, he knew the dressing room because he was second coach with Fomenko
What no one could imagine is that evolution would be so fast. He was about to qualify Ukraine for the World Cup in Russia and then he did not fail on the way to Euro 2020, being even ahead of the champion Portugal. In the League of Nations he managed to ascend to League A (then he has dropped) and in the Eurocup he has reached neither more nor less than the quarterfinals. Quite a feat for a technician who has managed to triumph with the new and promising Russian talents: Zabarni, Matvienko, Shaparenko, Zinchenko, Yaremchuk … A great team.