Ukraine's national team coach Oleg Blokhin announced the list of 23 footballers invited to the European Championship qualifying matches against the Faroe Islands and Lithuania at the end of March. The Ukrainians will face the Lithuanians on March 28 in Odessa.
After missing the friendly match with Israel in February, Sergej Rebrov is back in the lineup. The spearhead of the Ukrainian attack should consist of Chelsea and Bayer forwards Andriy Shevchenko and Andriy Voronin, as well as the new Zenit acquisition Anatoliy Tymoschuk. In general, there will be only five "foreign legionnaires" in the Ukrainian national team.
Goalkeeper Oleksandr Shovkovskiy is set to defend the national team's goal for the 77th time. He is the player with the most appearances for Ukraine among the current national team members.
Having advanced to the quarterfinals in the World Championships, the Ukrainians have 6 points in B group after 3 matches (victories against Georgia and Scotland, loss to Italy), and are in 4th place out of 7 teams in the qualifying round for the European Championship.
Composition of the Ukrainian national team for the matches against the Faroe Islands and Lithuania:
Goalkeepers: Andriy Pyatov (Poltava's Vorskla), Oleksandr Shovkovskiy (Kyiv's Dynamo), Bohdan Shust (Donetsk's Shakhtar).
Defenders: Andriy Nesmachnyi (Kyiv's Dynamo), Dmytro Chyhrynskyi (Donetsk's Shakhtar), Oleksandr Kucher (Donetsk's Shakhtar), Andriy Rusol (Dnipro), Volodymyr Yezerskyi (Dnipro), Oleh Shelayev (Dnipro), Oleksandr Romanchuk (Dnipro), Vyacheslav Sviderskyi (Odesa's Chornomorets).
Midfielders: Oleh Husyev (Kyiv's Dynamo), Ruslan Rotan (Kyiv's Dynamo), Taras Mykhalyk (Kyiv's Dynamo), Sergiy Rebrov (Kyiv's Dynamo), Maksym Kalinichenko (Moscow's Spartak), Yevhen Levchenko (Groningen), Anatoliy Tymoschuk (Zenit St. Petersburg), Serhiy Nazarenko (Dnipro).
Forwards: Oleksiy Bielik (Donetsk's Shakhtar), Andriy Vorobey (Donetsk's Shakhtar), Andriy Shevchenko (Chelsea), Andriy Voronin (Bayer Leverkusen).