Football: Sydorchuk, of the Ukrainian team, takes advantage of the silence before the clash against Belgium

STUTTGART, Germany (Reuters) – With all four teams locked on three points heading into the final round of Euro 2024 Group E matches, Ukraine midfielder Serhiy Sydorchuk is doing his best to keep his opinions to himself ahead of his team’s shock against Belgium on Wednesday. .

With Slovakia and Romania meeting in the other match, Sydorchuk said his team knew a win would allow them to advance to the round of 16 and be one of the top two, but he didn’t didn’t want to tempt fate.

“When you say something very loudly, the echo will also be very loud, so I think we should keep quiet and do what we can do, and we will see tomorrow at 8 p.m. what we could do,” a- he declared. journalists Tuesday.

The Ukrainians, who bounced back from a 3-0 loss to Romania to claim a 2-1 win over Slovakia, face a Belgian side who started the tournament losing to Slovakia but have experienced players in their squad quality.

Midfielder Sydorchuk, who plays in Belgium for Westerlo, said he wanted to thank the Belgian people for the welcome he and his family have received since arriving there.

“The first time at school with my children, in supermarkets and in markets, everyone is nice to me. I want to thank you for this, but my family will only support Ukraine tomorrow, sorry,” said Sydorchuk said with a smile.

Coach Serhiy Rebrov said he wanted to see his team qualify to alleviate some of the misery caused by the Russian invasion of his country.

“What this means for the country is that we will continue this fairy tale, this really fantastic fairy tale for several more days for the whole country, because we have been at war for almost 900 days,” said l 50-year-old coach. .

“For Ukrainians, every match, every event like that means a lot, it means for them that they can return to the usual pre-war times.” (This story has been corrected to attribute quotes to Serhiy Sydorchuk)

(Reporting by Philip O’Connor, editing by Ed Osmond)