Ukraine's Women's Football Team Triumphs Over Serbia in UEFA Nations League
Ukraine's women's national football team concluded their final match in the inaugural UEFA Nations League with a victory over Serbia, securing a 1-0 win. This triumph allowed the Ukrainian women to avoid direct relegation from Division B to Division C, as reported by the Ukrainian Football Association.
The match took place in the Serbian city of Stara Pazova at the central stadium of the national team training base. In the first half, both teams created goal-scoring opportunities, but none could break the deadlock. The only goal of the match came in the 55th minute when Ukraine's midfielder, Viktoriya Hiryn of "Ladomyr," scored after a rebound.
As a result, the "blue and yellow" retained their third position in the group standings. Furthermore, this outcome prevented Ukraine's women's team from being the worst among the third-placed teams in their respective groups. Consequently, Ukraine avoided direct relegation to Division C of the Nations League and will now compete in playoff matches to secure their place in Division B. In the next stage, the Ukrainian team will face teams from League C, including Latvia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria, in February 2024.
In other football news, the men's national team of Ukraine learned their opponents for the UEFA Euro 2024 qualification playoff. In the semifinal of this mini-tournament, Ukraine will face Bosnia and Herzegovina. The winner of this tie will play against the winner of the match between Israel and Iceland in the final.
The Gaze also reported on Ukraine's freestyle football team making a successful debut in the first stage of the 2023/24 World Cup in Ruka, Finland. Notably, 22-year-old Dmytro Kotovskyi secured a bronze medal in the men's individual competition. The National Olympic Committee of Ukraine provided this information.
Both the men's and women's freestyle tournaments consisted of three stages: qualifications, finals (for the top 12 athletes), and super-finals (for the top 6 athletes). Each athlete had only one attempt in each stage.
Ukraine was represented by six skiers in the men's tournament, including Kotovskyi. Among other participants were Oleksandr Okipnyuk, Volodymyr Kushnir, Zakhar Maksymchuk, Yan Havryuk, and Maxim Kuznetsov. In the women's tournament, Angelina Brykina and 16-year-old Diana Yablonska, a debutant in the World Cup, competed for Ukraine.