Assistant coach of the Ukrainian national team visited the match "Kharkiv" - "Shakhtar"
The assistant coach of the Ukrainian national team, Andrea Maldera, Taras Stepanenko, attended the match of the third round of the UPL between "Kharkiv" and "Shakhtar" (0:1) live.
After the final whistle, Stepanenko also visited the "miners" dressing room and congratulated the team on the victory.
At the same time, it is not excluded that the representative of the coaching staff of the Ukrainian national team was observing not only the "Shakhtar" players but also evaluating potential candidates for the national team among the "Kharkiv" team. Kharkiv players had a strong match against one of the championship favorites and created enough chances to count on at least a draw.
Among those whom Stepanenko could have been specifically monitoring were Ivan Kaluzhny and Ilya Krupsky. Kaluzhny has already played 14 matches for the Ukrainian national team and scored one goal, but after Andrea Maldera's arrival, he stopped receiving call-ups. Krupsky, in turn, remains one of the closest candidates for a call-up to the national team.
