More than 40 members of the Ukrainian national team were scattered around the center circle of Tarczynski Arena in Wrocław.
Players, coaches and backroom staff looked out to a crowd of 30,000 dressed in blue and yellow as the Vikings thunderclap. Iceland, who organized this celebration at the 2016 European Championship, could only listen in despair as they lost this Euro 2024 play-off final to a late attack by Chelsea forward Myhailo Mudryk.
Strangers hugged each other. Families draped in Ukrainian flags posed for photos. People back home in war-torn Ukraine also shared the moment via video call with those unable to experience this emotional release in person, some 1,000 kilometers away in southwestern Poland.
Ukraine did it.
Ukrainian players address the crowd (Sergey Gapon/AFP via Getty Images)
Despite enduring more than two years of Russian aggression and indiscriminate bombing, with millions of people displaced, a weakened domestic league and home-field advantage long gone, coach Serhiy Rebrov The team had won two tense play-off games to qualify for this summer's Euros – a mountain they failed to climb two years ago in their bid to qualify for the World Cup, losing in the final stages to Wales.
Captain Oleksandr Zinchenko led his team to celebrate their second come-from-behind victory on the pitch in five days, with a similar late success against Iceland at 2-1 with the same scoreline as the away game against Bosnia and Herzegovina. They won, and chants like Adam's apple echoed around them. Arena.
“Zusu! Zusu! Zusu!”
This acronym stands for “Zbronyi Syly Ukraine”, or the Ukrainian Armed Forces. These Ukrainian supporters, almost all wearing the blue and yellow flag, were reminding the world why this victory was more than just a soccer victory.
This was less a lap of honor and more a depiction of how contradictory it is to be Ukrainian today. Although he was overjoyed to have reached his second major final after making the playoffs in his seven attempts, he was keenly aware of how small the sport had become in the shadow of war. We may be united in a foreign city, but separated from our loved ones across borders. While they are grateful for international support, they fear their struggle will disappear from the public consciousness.
“I'm very emotional. If not, that's one of the most important things.” of The most important thing is to win in the history of Ukraine,” says Andrew Todos, a British-Ukrainian journalist and founder of the Ukrainian soccer website Zorya Londonsk.
“The background is that we have to hold a tournament to provide a very important platform for the country. You’re going to hear about the war.”
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British-born drummer Andriy Buniak (bottom) of the Ukrainian folk band Kob Kozaks, Andrew Todos (third from right) and Myron Huzan (right) (Jordan Campbell/The Athletic)
The Ukrainian FA selected Wrocław for this play-off final as they knew it was their best chance of almost gaining home advantage as the hosts. A 1-1 group stage draw with England here in September drew a crowd of 39,000, and Wrocław has become one of the main cities for Ukrainians to flee in the past two years.
Since the invasion, more than 17.2 million Ukrainians have been recorded to have crossed the more than 530-kilometre border with Poland.
Already in 2018, it was pointed out that one in ten residents of Wrocław was Ukrainian. The city's university status means that family reunions bring the number to about a third of the population. It would have risen slightly again on Tuesday, turning the city into a “little Kiev.”
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In the market square, taiko drummers in traditional costumes beat the rhythm, accompanied by cheerful choruses and heartfelt gatherings. Every act of joy by the Ukrainian contingent soon felt like an expression of defiance.
What remains constant is a sense of togetherness, captured earlier in the day by a charity match between a team of former players and the 'Potato Soldiers'. The nickname was given by organizer Mykola Vasilkov because of the amount of food the team delivered to the front lines. We were able to reach this goal thanks to the donation support from the national team players.
“Our message was 'no Ukraine, no Euro football' and now we have done it,” says Vasilkov, who joins Andriy Shevchenko's five-year regime as Ukraine manager.
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Vasilkov helped then-coach Shevchenko with the Ukraine setup (Jordan Campbell/The Athletic)
The majority of Ukrainians who took part in last night's playoffs had lived elsewhere in Europe for several years before the conflict. Men between the ages of 18 and 60 are prohibited from leaving the country unless they receive special permission.
Although unable to fight for a cause in the traditional sense, this was a day when the diaspora did its part.goal scorer victor Tsygankov and Mudryk playing for S-League clubsPain, England and a diverse fan base combined to put their country on the map at this summer's tournament in Germany.
“There was great emotion and atmosphere in the dressing room. It's special to wear the Ukrainian badge on your chest these days,” says Zinchenko. “Today all Ukrainians were watching our game, so it is very difficult to explain the feelings in my heart.
“Before the game, all the video messages we received from Ukrainians at home and abroad, from soldiers fighting on the front lines for independence and freedom, were all supporting us. It was an added motivation for us. I did.”
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Zinchenko applauds fans after Ukraine's victory (Andrzej Iwanczuk/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
It was last summer that Zinchenko used Arsenal's preseason tour of the United States to call for the delivery of American-made F-15 fighter jets to the Ukrainian military. He did not want the world to become weary and forget the suffering of his compatriots.
“It (Euro 2024) is going to be very important,” he says. “We all understand that. This competition is one of the biggest in sports, so the whole world will be watching. How good we are as a team and how good we are as Ukrainians. This is a unique opportunity to show how great it is.
“Our people will never give up and will continue to fight to the end.”
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Zinchenko and his teammates were hardly underdogs last night, as Iceland's population of 375,000 is dwarfed by Ukraine's estimated 34 million, and their 73rd place in the FIFA rankings is well below their opponents' 24th place. However, Ukrainian players still have to endure mental strain. A family endures life in a war zone.
In the most recent World Cup, Ukraine missed out on the play-offs in June 2022, winning away to Scotland 3-1 in the semi-finals, but losing 1-0 in Cardiff thanks to Gareth Bale's strike. The major change in direction has meant that domestically-based players have only been able to play in friendlies against club teams for the past seven months. That wasn't the case this time around, though, with four of the starting XI and 11 of the team's 23 players based in Ukraine.
The domestic league restarted in the summer of 2022, but the quality declined as most of the top foreign players left the team, and it was only last month that a small number of players were able to participate in top league games again. It is from. This is only possible with the provision of air raid warnings and readily available evacuation bunkers.
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Ukrainian fans celebrate qualifying (Andrzej Iwanczuk/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
During the playoff final, footage was shown of Ukrainian soldiers in the trenches watching the game on cell phones. In Wrocław on Tuesday, ties to home were strong.
Artem Jenne, a London-based fan, said: “I work in the military, so I brought a flag signed by Ukrainian soldiers,'' and “Good luck for peace and prosperity in Ukraine.'' ” and held up the signatures of various regiments. . “We visited the team the day before the game and took photos of the team with flags to send back to the military to boost morale.
“Some of my family members live near military installations and have witnessed many attacks. Many of my friends live in Kiev (the capital) and they have had their windows broken from their balconies. They sent me footage. It goes on every day, and even though we're not there, it still affects us to know that our friends are in underground shelters.”
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Artem Jenne and a friend hold a flag signed by Ukrainian soldiers (Jordan Campbell/The Athletic)
Roman Labunsky traveled more than 200 miles from Berlin, West Germany, to attend the game with his wife and two sons.
His eldest son Nathan, 13, has only been to Ukraine twice before, but he rode on his father's shoulders during the 2014 Maidan revolution. On his way to the stadium, he saw something that woke him up.
“I saw trucks carrying tanks to the border,” Roman said. “It was a reminder that we can still be safe and have fun. My cousins came to stay with us after the invasion, but we moved back because we felt safe.” I sometimes feel guilty that I'm not living in the moment because now they're facing rocket bombs again.
“It's not just the football that we wanted to win and the team knows that. It's no longer about them being here and the fans being there. We feel with them right now. . The euro will bring hope and happiness to everyone's homeland.”
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Aaron, Natan and Roman Lanunski traveled from Berlin to Wrocław (Jordan Campbell/The Athletic)
Most of the players taking part in the games had left Ukraine years ago, but some narrowly escaped death on the front lines.
Serhiy was 16 years old and living in a village five kilometers from Kiev when Russian tanks began moving towards the capital.
“This was the last town that wasn't captured. If that had happened, it would have been a big problem for Kiev,” he says. “When the war started, I moved west. I then stayed in Germany for seven months and returned home.
“Now I live in Khelm (eastern Poland, across the border from Ukraine).”
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Fedil (center) and Serhiy (right) in Wrocław's Market Square (Jordan Campbell/The Athletic)
His friend Fedil is from Vinnytsia, a city southwest of Kiev.
“The Polish people were very kind and welcomed us,” Fedil says. “We appreciate the support from them, but it has decreased compared to two years ago. This war has tired everyone: Ukrainians, Poles. People are starting to forget about it. We are not.”
Vitaly is part of a select group of combat-aged men who are allowed to cross the border because of their work in Denmark dating back to 2010.
“I grew up hearing stories about my grandparents not being able to read books in Ukrainian, so I wasn't surprised when the war broke out,” he says.
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Vitaliy (left) spending time with his family outside the stadium (Jordan Campbell/The Athletic)
“They are trying to tell us that western Ukraine is not the same as eastern Ukraine, including language, culture and history.
“That's why football is so important. Since we gained independence, we have become more resilient as a people and able to see things with our own eyes. We have our own identity. And this summer is our chance to show it to the world.”
(Top photo: Sergey Gapon/AFP)