TOPS
Absent during the group stages, the striker transferred last winter to Chelsea for 70 million euros, shone this Sunday evening. Brilliant, he distinguished himself at the half-hour mark by showing his technical and percussion qualities to eliminate Barcola then Kalulu, guilty of a fault in the box. Penalty caused then converted by Sudakov. Mudryk weighed in with his intelligence and his vista as on the second Ukrainian goal and his masterful opening behind the French defenders to offer Sudakov a double. In the second half his long balls continued to be dangerous and his performance (concluded by his exit in the 78th minute) was very successful even if he did not score.
Double scorer, Sudakov was the decisive man of the meeting by transforming his penalty (32nd) and by registering the second goal of his team just before the break (44th) after a sharp call, well served by Mudryk. In the Ukrainian midfield, he was a game facilitator by his technical qualities in the transmissions. Defensively he also brought a lot with in addition a large volume of play.
The Lyon duo were more discreet in the second half but very successful in the first. The control of the Blueberries during the first 45 minutes will have been greatly facilitated by these two men. At the origin of most tricolor opportunities, Barcola proved untenable on his left side by creating the first opportunity and then becoming a decisive passer for Cherki (19th). The latter, also very prominent, was rewarded with a very nice left-footed goal. Barcola then found the post with a curling shot from the right (38th) surely one of the turning points of the match, shortly before the second Ukrainian goal.
FLOPS
Guilty of a first technical error by missing a simple pass for Barcola, Kalulu tarnished the image of his match by contacting Mudryk in the area to offer a penalty to Ukraine, that of the equalizer. While the French were relatively quiet. Subsequently, he did not contribute much offensively and was fragile like his defensive partners on his placement.
The Ukrainians fed on the French defensive naivety and especially in the alignment. For example during Sudakov’s second goal before the break where Simakan and Kalulu on the right seemed too advanced and Nkounkou and Lukeba were beaten by the striker’s call showing incredible passivity. The few chances of Mudryk’s teammates very often came from the hand of the Chelsea striker who had fun finding his partners in depth. Still taking advantage of the feverishness of the men in navy blue on the third and last goal where Le Fée and Nkounkou were sucked up by Nazarenko before Lukeba was too easily eliminated by the striker Bondarenko.
