The match between the national teams of Russia and Ukraine in the semi-finals of the European mini-football championship promised to be extremely principled and discussed. And although no one forgot about the sports component, the main reason for the increased attention to this confrontation was the tense relations between the states. It is because of this that the meetings between the teams have become so rare, and therefore expected. Since 2014, they have been separated from each other at the draw stage, depriving them of the opportunity to cross paths at the group stage, and strong rivals did not interfere with organizing a landmark duel in the playoffs.

And this despite the fact that in this period the national teams of Russia and Ukraine regularly qualified for the top eight in the continental championships.

At the last three European Championships, they invariably made it to the playoffs, but were in the same part of the grid only once - in 2016.

Everything went to the fact that they will fight in the semi-finals, but the goal of the Serb Milos Simic against the Ukrainians in the last seconds did not allow hopes to come true.

And only six years later, fate nevertheless brought the two teams together.

As expected, the Russian team was considered the favorite.

And not only thanks to a more than confident performance in the Netherlands, where she won four victories in a row.

Over the past ten years, domestic football players have firmly entrenched themselves in the elite.

And at three of the last four championships of the continent, they won silver medals, only in 2018 lowering the bar a little.

Then they could not cope with the Portuguese in the semi-finals and subsequently took bronze.

The Ukrainian team, on the contrary, has noticeably slowed down over the years. Although she regularly overcame the barrier of the group stage, she had not fought for awards since 2005. Then the yellow-blues reached the 1/2 finals for the last time, where they lost devastatingly to the Spaniards - 0:5. At the same time, the exit from the group was also in question. Wards of Alexander Kosenko suffered two defeats and scored only three points, but miraculously went further on additional indicators, after which they coped with the Kazakhs in a bright “shootout” - 5:3.

However, in the match with the Russians, at first they did little.

The team of Sergei Skorovich immediately offered powerful pressure, which took the enemy by surprise.

Preferring to leave their zone through a short pass, the Ukrainians regularly made losses and already in the second minute found themselves in the role of catching up.

Long-range shot by Anton Sokolov was neither strong nor accurate, but on the way the ball hit the opponent.

The ricochet disorientated the goalkeeper of the nominal hosts Cyril Tsipun and led to the first goal.

For some time, Kosenko did not interfere in the course of the meeting and waited for the players themselves to find the keys to the opponent.

But over time, the advantage of the Russians only grew.

Sergey Abramov repeatedly touched the ball, Artyom Niyazov had a chance to excel.

This forced the mentor to decide on emergency measures and switch to a five-field game.

The Ukrainians seized the initiative and began to carry out one positional attack after another, but forgot about the defense.

Andrei Afanasiev responded to a long throw by goalkeeper Dmitry Putilov and hit the crossbar with his head, but did not turn off the fight and completed what he had begun.

However, a minute later the difference in the score was reduced - Yevgeny Seryy flashed the net with a long-range shot, having received a yellow card a few minutes before.

The Russian national team spent the second half mainly at their own gates. Skorovich never figured out how to prevent the opponent from effectively using the extra field player, so his wards were forced to fight back. As never before, Nando and Niyazov demonstrated their performance skills. The first one cut out a fantastically accurate transfer from his half of the site, and the second closed it with side scissors. Subsequently, the overactive Abramov tried to repeat this trick, but again missed.

However, it was not possible to “kill” the intrigue.

Five minutes before the end of regular time, the Russians missed a three-on-two counterattack and allowed Daniil Abakshin to repeat Gray's achievement.

He also earned a “yellow card” shortly before, but then rehabilitated himself in front of his native fans.

Those, by the way, not only very actively supported their players, but also behaved ugly towards their opponents, chanting insulting and Russophobic chants during the meeting.

As a result, the organizers even had to make a verbal remark.

“Dear fans, please stop songs of an unsportsmanlike nature,” the stadium announcer announced in Ukrainian.

However, this did not allow the fans to unbalance the current bronze medalists of the Old World.

At a minimum, their goalkeeper Putilov, who became one of the main characters of the final segment of the match.

A minute before the end of normal time, he repelled Peter Shoturma's blow from the "point" and did not allow him to transfer the game to overtime.

Dmitry did not guess and remained in the center of the gate, only jumping a little on the spot.

The ball hit right at his feet.

“I want to congratulate all our fans on the victory and thank them.

We felt their support.

After all, I myself “welded” this penalty - I gave an inaccurate pass, after which an attack went on our goal.

It's good that it all ended like that.

Before the penalty, I didn’t think much, only how to play ... The Ukrainians chose the tactic of playing with five against four - it’s exhausting, you have to constantly keep concentration.

So it’s good that we scored and successfully defended, ”Putilov admitted on Match TV.

The performance of the goalkeeper was also noted separately by the author of the winning goal.

Forward Artyom Niyazov admitted that the end of the meeting turned out to be very nervous and thanked Putilov for the most important save.

“You have to give credit to the opposing team.

In the four-on-four game, we were stronger today, but in the majority the opponent was very formidable.

It's good that the guys held out in defense, plus thanks to our goalkeeper Dima Putilov for this save from the penalty spot.

People at the screens must have gone crazy at that moment.

Thank you for giving us this ticket to the final, ”Niyazov is quoted by the press service of the Russian Futsal Association (AMFR).

As for the goal scored, Niyazov was extremely modest.

He noted his importance for the team and praised the pass performed by his partner.

“My goal was spectacular, but most importantly, it became important for the team and turned out to be victorious.

For me, this is the most important thing.

I will note a good transfer from Nando.

At that moment I already closed my eyes and jumped.

I successfully hit the ball and I am glad that I scored,” Niyazov added.

The forward did not bypass the topic of the behavior of Ukrainian fans, who showed themselves from not the best side, not only during the match, but also at its end.

Already after the final whistle, they booed domestic football players.

“Such a number of spectators cheering against us only tempered our team.

We are even more convinced of the importance of this victory.

The main thing is that there are fans in the stands.

They create the surroundings of mini-football and add emotions.

The fans of the Russian national team were also seen and heard today.

Many thanks to everyone who cheered for us in the stands and to the millions of viewers who were worried about the Russian national team at the screen,” Niyazov concluded.

The head coach of the Russian national team Sergei Skorovich also understood what atmosphere would reign around the confrontation with Ukraine.

But he noted that domestic football players tried not to attach importance to this.

“We understood that the meeting would have a special entourage, but we are persistent people - we just did our job and did not pay any attention to it.

As we can see, such work is always rewarded.

The guys were great, they acted coolly.

Yes, some things can be improved, but the opponent did not allow much to be realized either.

I congratulate everyone on the victory!

This is a very important result, but the final is ahead.

There is no euphoria, we will calmly prepare for the next opponent.

We have a very experienced team, we have been working together for a long time and we know what we want to achieve,” said Skorovich.