The Belgian soccer team drew goalless this Wednesday with the Ukraine team, in a match played at the MHP Arena in Stuttgart and corresponding to Group E of the men’s Euro Cup, whose score has left the Ukrainians out of the championship and has tied the Belgians with France in their round of 16 match. With everything open in the most even group of this tournament, Belgium began the match more actively, riding on the back of Jérémy Doku and especially its captain, Kevin De Bruyne. The two Manchester City players showed effort, but without connecting in the last touch with Romelu Lukaku, a constant nightmare for the two Ukrainian centre-backs. Lukaku himself had a chance in the 7th minute, although without hooking his left foot into the area after a nice pass from De Bruyne between the lines. Ukraine’s response took a long time to come, until the 20th minute, when the Valencia attacker Roman Yaremchuk shot from distance and the rival goalkeeper, Koen Casteels, caught it without problems. After half an hour, De Bruyne warned the English referee Anthony Taylor that someone from the stands was bothering him with a laser pointer, when serving for a free kick that the Belgian captain took in a surprising way; His quick shot crashed into the side netting, much to the relief of Ukrainian goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin. Before the break there was an opportunity for each team, first for Ukraine with a cross that was too strong from Yaremchuk and which Artem Dovbyk was unable to finish inside the opponent’s area; and the response of the ‘red devils’ was a right hand from De Bruyne from outside the area, which ended up in Trubin’s hands despite his power. Upon returning from the locker room, the match continued to suffer from a slow pace and a lack of real danger. Just a long shot from Youri Tielemans that tripped over a defender when the 52nd minute had passed, was the offensive baggage before the first substitutions were made. For the yellow team, Sergei Rebrov was forced to withdraw Vitali Mykolenko due to injury, although the entry of Oleksandr Zinchenko onto the field had little impact on the game of his teammates. Meanwhile, Domenico Tedesco also moved his bench, including replacing a gray Leandro Trossard with the liveliness of Yannick Carrasco. Thanks to that virtue, the former Atlético de Madrid player enjoyed a great chance in the 79th minute, thanks to a right-footed shot from the edge of the area after a one-two with Lukaku; However, Trubin skillfully cleared Carrasco’s hard shot. Opposite, the insistence of Dovbyk, protagonist of two dangerous shots, found no loot for Ukraine. The Girona FC striker was being the most incisive of a Ukrainian team that turned to the attack in the final stages, when forward Andriy Yarmolenko replaced defender Oleksandr Svatok. Little by little, the team coached by Rebrov was fraying between the lines and that is why the ‘red devils’ gave them more than one scare. This was confirmed in the 87th minute by a left foot shot by Johan Bakayoko, who had also come on as a substitute during the second half. Shortly before, Ruslan Malinovsky had almost scored an Olympic goal by taking a left-footed corner from the right wing. Casteels had work piled up, such as a shot by Georgiy Sudakov from the balcony of the area after a slalom. The four minutes added by Anthony Taylor was the time that Ukraine had in front of them to score, since they were going to be left out of the EURO due to the combination of this 0-0 with the 1-1 that Slovakia vs Romania reflected in the distance. But despite such urgency, Rebrov’s team did not find a way to put Casteels in greater trouble. After the final whistle of the English referee, this tie and that of the Slovaks against the Romanians were consummated, leaving Belgium in second position in the group with four points and +1 in goal difference (2-1); For its part, the Ukrainian team finished bottom, also with four points but with -2 in goal difference (2-4). DATA SHEET. –RESULT: UKRAINE, 0 – BELGIUM, 0 (0-0, at halftime). –LINEUPS: UKRAINE: Trubin; Tymchyk, Zabarnyi, Svatok (Yarmolenko, min.81), Matviienko, Mykolenko (Zinchenko, min.58); Shaparenko (Vanat, min.70), Brazhko (Stepanenko, min.70), Sudakov; Yaremchuk (Malinovsky, min.70) and Dovbyk. BELGIUM: Casteels; Vertonghen, Faes, Theate, Castagne; Onana, Tielemans (Mangala, min.62), De Bruyne; Doku (Bakayoko, min.77), Trossard (Carrasco, min.62) and Lukaku (Openda, min.90). –REFEREE: Anthony Taylor (ENG). He yellow carded Dovbyk (min.69) for Ukraine and Faes (min.43) for Belgium. –STADIUM: MHP Arena (Stuttgart), 54,000 spectators.
