Blokhin confirms Ukraine's finals party
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
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Oleh Blokhin named his final 23-man Ukraine squad for UEFA EURO 2012 as the unlucky trio of Oleksandr Bandura, Vitaly Mandziuk and Taras Stepanenko headed for home.
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The unlucky trio of goalkeeper Oleksandr Bandura, defender Vitaly Mandziuk and midfielder Taras Stepanenko flew home from Munich at lunchtime today after Ukraine coach Oleh Blokhin decided to leave them out of his final 23-man squad for UEFA EURO 2012.
The three players had formed part of Blokhin's 26-man group preparing for the finals in Austria but found themselves on the outside when the coach finalised his squad after the 4-0 friendly win against Estonia last night. They boarded a flight out of Munich at 13.30CET.
Ukraine will step up their preparations in their remaining two warm-up games against Austria in Innsbruck on Friday and Turkey in Ingolstadt on 5 June before the co-hosts begin their Group D campaign against Sweden on 11 June.
Ukraine squad
Goalkeepers: Oleksandr Goryainov (FC Metalist Kharkiv), Maxym Koval (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Andriy Pyatov (FC Shakhtar Donetsk).
Defenders: Bohdan Butko (FC Illychivets Mariupil), Olexandr Kucher (FC Shakhtar Donetsk), Taras Mikhalik (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Yaroslav Rakitskiy (FC Shakhtar Donetsk), Yevhen Selin (FC Vorskla Poltava), Yevhen Khacheridi (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Vyacheslav Shevchuk (FC Shakhtar Donetsk).
Midfielders: Olexandr Aliyev (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Denys Garmash (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Oleh Gusev (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Yevhen Konoplyanka (FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Serhiy Nazarenko (SC Tavriya Simferopol), Ruslan Rotan (FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (FC Bayern München), Andriy Yarmolenko (FC Dynamo Kyiv).
Forwards: Andriy Voronin (FC Dinamo Moskva), Marko Dević (FC Metalist Kharkiv), Artem Milevskiy (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Yevhen Seleznyov (FC Shakhtar Donetsk), Andriy Shevchenko (FC Dynamo Kyiv).
