Albania

FT

1 : 3

vs

HT 1 : 1

Ukraine

lol

Ukraine won because Ukraine is a much stronger team than Albania in every way. Stop making excuses.

OLP i watched the match and i didn't see this much stronger thing you are talking about. Ukraine may have better players but today they played a poor game , and i think in friendlies it's more immportant how you play than the results . And andriy don't try to be ironic please , if you can give a opinion on the game then go on , but you should know that top teams do not allow goals like that.

Ok, I'll give you a straight answer, without being ironic. Every goal ever conceded in the history of football has been conceded due to a defensive mistake by someone, so that's a bullshit argument to begin with, if Ukraine made one mistake and Albania made three, then Ukraine was better in defense. I also watched the entire game, I saw Ukrainian midfielders pass the ball around confidently between themselves, when it comes to Albania I'm not even sure if they had any central midfielders, cause I sure didn't notice them, Ukraine was also better in midfield. Albania;s attackers score 1 goal, the three players in Ukraine's attack, between themselves, scored 2 goals and provided 2 assists. So Ukraine was also better in attack. To conclude: in all three areas Ukraine were the better team.

Statisticaly albania had more possesion and more passes . Not to mention that in the first half if it was not for the stupid goal they didn't even get to the albanian box once , and found it very hard to go through the midfield . However if you call a header deflected by the keeper an assist or a low cross meant for noone deflected by the defender ...well your opinion. However i don't think you as an ukrainan can give me an objective answer about this . And i was just saying that big teams don't give you this chances

What does me being Ukrainian have to do with anything? We had a bad defensive performance in a game against Romania, and I'm the first one to admit it. There were stretches in the game, that lasted 2-4 minutes at a time, when Albania, because Ukraine doesn't play high pressure in the opponents last third, passed the ball between defenders, that's where the possession and passes statistic comes from, it's possession for the sake of possession, speaks to quality of actual gameplay.

It has to do with the fact that you watch the match as a fan . Albania played against my national team three months ago(Austria btw) and the same thing happened , two stupid errors and concieded two goals (you can watch the highlights)they have very poor defenders. I have nothing with ukraine ,i was just giving my opinion about tonight match , ukraine were struggling to create chances against a not so good team . We often saw konoplyanka and yarmolenko to go deep and get the ball and that's not a good sign for me .

I may be a fan, but I've always been "a fan", yet I think that we were shit under the previous 4 mangers and have had a few poorer performances under Fomenko, too, so my objectivity is not hindered by my support. If they made "2 stupid mistakes", then they were the worse team. This is football, the definition of the game is that the team that has made fewer mistakes and conceded fewer goals while scoring more than the opposition is the better team. Ball possession and passes completed are "statistical white noise", they have absolutely no reflection on which team was better. If you are solid on 7/10 defensive plays, but make "stupid mistakes" in the other 3/10, then you are shit in defence. Period.

@Alvin
In modern football possession means nothing, unless you play vs Spain. In that historic match Germany vs Brazil only 2 years ago, Brazil possessed the ball more than their opponents. Shall I remind you how it ended?

Well in friendlies i think it's more important how a team aproaches a game than the result and statistics are not white noise in my opinion because these games are made to know your defects and try and repair them.. However i made a mistake calling albania a not so good team in the last comments but i had some information and we should not forget that albania has lost a lot of friendlies and when it matters they can really be a suprise. They beat portugal in their home and finished second in their group. So i wish good luck two both ukraine and albania :)

Yeah, I think quarter-finals are the most likely result