It was certainly rather mixed day for the Arsenal players at this summer’s European Championships.
A rather hit-and-miss tournament debut for William Saliba as France held on to defeat a lively Austria side 1-0, the Gunners colossus bailed out by the evergreen N’Golo Kante after making the sort of mistake seldom-seen on the Premier League stage during the second-half.
At least Saliba could sleep a little easier knowing that his France side had three points on the board.
There was no such luxury for Leanardo Trossard, the Arsenal winger failing to break down a disciplined Slovenia side during the biggest shock of the competition so far. Oleksandr Zinchenko‘s Ukraine, meanwhile, were slapped 3-0 by a Romania team who appeared determined to put together their very own Goal of the Tournament competition in front of a sunshine wall of bright yellow.
Arsenal man slams ’embarrassing’ Euro 2024 defeat
Romania were magic. Ukraine, rather tragic.
Boasting a couple of players who ply their trade at the very highest level, more was expected of Ukraine in their Group E opener. But with Real Madrid’s Andriy Lunin making a pair of uncharacteristic errors in goal and Zinchenko chasing shadows down the left, a heavy defeat which leaves their goal difference on minus-three means Serhiy Rebrov’s team are already up against it in pursuit of a place in the top-three.
“I don’t know what to say,” Zinchenko sighs, via Megogo. “It was very embarrassing to look our fans in the eyes. They came to support us today. We will do everything in the next game to please our fans.
“Now I don’t know what to say. It’s very embarrassing. The guys understand what happened. We need to show our reaction in the next game. We need to win to get out of the group. Everyone understands that the game was terrible.”
It was Lunin’s misplaced pass which paved the way for Nicolae Stanciu’s glorious opener. The Champions League winner then allowed a Razvan Marin daisycutter to slip through his grasp before Dennis Man set up Dennis Dragus to tap in from close range.
“I don’t know when the turning point was,” adds Zinchenko. It’s always unpleasant to concede first. Somewhere, we lacked something, perhaps aggression. The coach will tell us what we did wrong, and I hope that in the next game we can get a positive result.”
The £30 million former Manchester City left-back endured a difficult second season at Arsenal, losing his spot in the starting XI to Jakub Kiwior at times.
Ex-Ukraine forward Viktor Leonenko pulled no punches in a brutal post-match autopsy, meanwhile, accusing Zinchenko of losing focus against a Romania side brimming with tenacity and no little technique.
Ukraine thumped by Romania in Germany
“I would like to single out two players of the Ukrainian national team in particular,” Leonenko says. “Our blond number 17 (Zinchenko) who (it felt like he) did not actually play, and Kolya Shaparenka. Our left side was very funny today. But something is not fun for me.
“It would be better for all of us to turn off the lights than to watch such a game.
“They consider themselves stars, our football players. They became stars. After such games, it will be interesting for me to look at the updated transfer value of Lunin or Zinchenko.
“It’s when the goals are flying in, the goalkeeper doesn’t help and Zinchenko is reading the newspaper on the wing, not playing, then we lose 3-0.
“We played like this in all the qualifying matches for Euro 2024. The worst thing is that nothing changes from match to match. There are constant blunders.”
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